This vegan bread pudding is golden and crispy on the outside and soft and delicious on the inside. Super easy, perfect comfort food. Divine served warm with vegan cream or ice cream.
I grew up eating bread pudding, it was one of the few things my mom liked to make.
My mom freely admits she hates cooking and baking, but even she could get inspired to make a good bread pudding here and there. It’s easy enough and you pretty much always have the ingredients on hand.
This vegan bread pudding will surprise you with how good (and easy) it is. If you’ve never had bread pudding before, then don’t worry, it’s not nearly as weird as it sounds.
Sure, the main ingredient IS bread but let me tell you, it makes a great dessert. No really, it does.
Ingredients You’ll Need:
Ingredient Notes
- Stale white bread. The bread should be a bit stale for best results. But even if your bread is still pretty fresh and soft this bread pudding will still work out great. We tested it with some very soft thick cut sandwich bread and it still worked out just fine, but it’s most ideal if you use bread that is a little stale. Depending on the thickness of the bread you’ll use 10-12 slices. If you’re slicing the bread yourself nice and thick then 10 slices is probably perfect. If you’re using a pre-sliced bread (it should still be a thick cut pre-sliced version) then around 12 slices is going to be perfect. If you want to be really precise with the measures then 18 ounces (500g) is going to be the ideal amount of bread. You can probably use a brown or whole wheat bread (I have not tested this), but bread pudding is most commonly made with white bread.
- Raw cashews – these are the ‘egg replacement’ in this recipe creating thickness and texture to the sauce. You could likely also use slivered or blanched almonds.
- Vegan butter – is for brushing over the top of the pudding before it goes into the oven. This creates the lovely browning on top. We also brush more butter onto the pudding when it comes out of the oven.
- White granulated sugar – we only use ½ cup of sugar for this whole recipe, so it is not a super sweet dessert.
- Coconut cream – we used canned coconut cream (unsweetened). You could replace this with canned, full fat, unsweetened coconut milk.
How To Make Vegan Bread Pudding
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Cut white bread into cubes and place them into a mixing bowl with the raisins.
- Then blend up a sauce of canned coconut cream, raw cashews, coconut oil, white granulated sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract.
- Pour it over the top of the bread cubes and raisins and toss together so that all the pieces are coated.
- Transfer to a 9×13 baking dish. Brush with melted vegan butter.
- Bake in the oven for 45 minutes at 350°F (180°C).
- When it comes out the oven all golden and crispy, brush on more melted butter generously to the top.
- And then sprinkle it with powdered sugar. The powdered sugar is optional, but it does look pretty and adds some extra sweetness to this dessert as well.
How To Serve Vegan Bread and Butter Pudding
This is a dessert that does need a topping.
The best options are vegan whipped cream, or vegan ice cream. Vegan custard would be really delicious too.
If you’re serving it with vegan whipped cream then definitely sweeten your cream with a little powdered sugar. This is not a super sweet dessert and if it’s served with plain cream it likely won’t taste sweet enough.
With sweetened vegan cream it is divine and this is how we served it in these photos, but vegan ice cream or custard are most definitely going to be great too.
Storing
This dessert is best served immediately, but leftovers can be kept covered in the fridge for 3-4 days and then reheated. It definitely must be served warm!
More Delicious Vegan Puddings
- Vegan Apple Crisp
- Vegan Malva Pudding
- Vegan Sticky Toffee Pudding
- Vegan Peach Cobbler
- Vegan Apple Cake
- Vegan Rice Pudding
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Bread Pudding
Ingredients
- 10-12 Thick Slices White Bread (500g)
- ½ cup Raisins (75g)
- 2 ⅔ cups Canned Coconut Cream (660ml) Unsweetened
- ½ cup Raw Cashews (75g)
- 3 Tbsp Coconut Oil (45g)
- ½ cup White Granulated Sugar (100g)
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 4-6 Tbsp Vegan Butter (60-90g) Divided, for brushing
- Dusting of Powdered Sugar Optional
For Serving (Optional):
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Cut the bread into chunks and then add to a mixing bowl with the raisins.
- To a blender jug add coconut cream, cashews, coconut oil, white sugar, cinnamon and vanilla and blend until very smooth.
- Pour the blended mix over the bread chunks and raisins in the mixing bowl. Toss it carefully, being careful not to break up the bread, so that all the bread pieces are covered with the sauce.
- Transfer to a 9×13 baking dish and smooth down evenly.
- Melt 3 Tbsp of the vegan butter and brush it over the top. If you have some leftover then keep it for later.
- Place into the oven (uncovered) and bake for 45 minutes.
- When it comes out the oven it should be all browned and crispy on top. Melt the remaining 2-3 Tbsp of vegan butter and brush over the top. I usually start with 2 Tbsp but if I run out then I melt another 1 Tbsp.
- Dust the top with powdered sugar (optional) but it does look pretty.
- Serve with vegan whipped cream, vegan ice cream or vegan custard.
Notes
- It’s ideal if your bread is slightly stale. Depending on the thickness of the slices you might need 10 or 12 slices. If you’re slicing it quite thick yourself then 10 slices is probably right, if you’re buying pre-sliced (but thick cut) bread then 12 slices is probably right. You can weigh it for accuracy (18 ounces / 500g) but it is not necessary to be exact for this recipe to work out.
- Use full fat canned coconut cream. It works out to 1 and ⅔ cans of coconut cream. Measure this in a measuring jug for accuracy, but you should have around ⅓ of a can left over from 2 cans (14 ounces / 400ml each) of coconut cream.
- Nutritional information includes the powdered sugar dusted on top but excludes vegan cream, vegan ice cream or vegan custard that you serve with it.
- This recipe was first published in February 2019. It has been updated with extra tips but the recipe itself is unchanged.
This is the closest vegan recipe I have seen to non vegan bread pudding.
Thanks so much Cindy.
Excellent! My non-vegan English father-in-law was delighted that it tasted exactly like his favourite childhood dessert. He hadn’t had it in decades!
That’s awesome Luisa! Thanks so much for sharing!
Hi could the cashews be replaced for anything else? I can’t have nuts and I am finding it hard to find recipes that don’t have nuts in them.
Hi Marissa, I don’t think it would work well without the cashews in this recipe. However, Simple Vegan Blog have a great recipe for bread pudding without nuts. All the best! 🙂
I used dates instead of cashews and cut down on the sugar and it worked well for me
you don’t necessarily need the cashews, it just adds creamy protein. You can just add a tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with some of the coconut cream to thicken the custard a bit.
The bread pudding turned out amazing. I substituted raw cashews for Trader Joe’s coconut cashews.
Wonderful! Thanks so much for the great review!