Name: Apple Cider Donut Bread Pudding
Beer Pairing: Anything you darn well want! I recommend a pumpkin beer 🙂
I recently joined Costco, which was a terrible idea. REALLY terrible. And REALLY great. I immediately bought almost $80 worth of pointless bulk products, only narrowly escaping the $500 glorified blender. While eyeing the largest bag of popcorn I’ve ever seen for less than $4.00, I caught a glimpse of what I considered in the moment to be the best thing in the world – a bulk package of glazed, delicious Apple Cider Donut Holes made by Maple Donuts. At which point, I (naturally) squealed and ran over, throwing the donut box into my cart without a care in the world. Because, come on, they’re seasonal, they’re donuts, and they were in front of me. I’m kind of obsessed with donuts. The Dunkin’ variety in particular, but I wouldn’t turn down a Krispy Kreme if it was offered.
me with donuts circa… 1997?
Note – I’m going to use the spelling “donut” and not “doughnut” exclusively in this post, because that is how Maple Donuts spells the name of their product.
After Sean and I devoured about half the donut holes in a span of 2 days, I started the hoard all the remaining donut holes for my plan to make donut bread pudding, which I’ve been wanting to try FOREVER. (I would like to add that it is no easy task to hoard junk food when Sean is around. Or, for that matter, when I’m around.)
Using the internet as a guide, I primarily followed other donut/doughnut bread pudding recipes with a few tweaks – the recipe is shown below. (If you don’t have access to these specific donuts, any kind of cake-y donuts will do, or you may use this great apple cider donuts recipe to make your own!)
Mmmmm…. fresh apple cider donuts
I started by assigning the task of quartering the donut holes to Sean, which he took way too literally. While he carefully quartered each donut one by one, I threw together a mixture of rum (just a few tablespoons, optional), heavy cream, skim milk, eggs, a bit of applesauce, sugar, and cinnamon for a custard. I poured the custard over the donuts until saturation in a standard bread pan:
Ingredients
- ~6 cups day-old doughnuts, cut into pieces (best if they are the cake-y variety)
- 4 large eggs (I used 3 eggs and 1/2 cups applesauce)
- 2 tablespoons dark rum or 1/2 teaspoon rum extract (optional)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup skim or 2% milk
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
Directions
Cut donuts into pieces and put into greased loaf pan (~9 in x 5in x 5in). Whisk the eggs, rum, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla until combined, and then add in the milk and whipping cream until combined. Pour over the donuts until saturated, using your judgment to determine how “wet” the bread pudding should be based on preference. (After my experience, I would recommend stopping as soon as everything is covered and no longer.) Bake for between 45-55 minutes at 350 degrees. Great served warm!
Various baking stages
I nervously baked it for about an hour at 350 degrees, trying to get a crispy top. There was too much liquid in the middle and bottom, so those parts baked much slower than expected. I would definitely use less of the liquid components if making this again, and have noted that in the recipe listed above.
Anyways, once out of the oven and cooling, I whipped together a simple glaze from warm water, powdered sugar, and vanilla, and threw it over top, and that’s about it! We ate it warm with just some whipped cream, as I thought it would be a bit too sweet for ice cream.
Finished product
Thoughts – using too much liquid was definitely a primary concern. I don’t like a “soggy” bread pudding, and had to bake for much longer than expected in order to get the inner parts cooked. Even then, I got a good crisp on the outside but the inside remained fairly saturated. I wouldn’t call it soggy, but I wouldn’t likely use 3/4 the liquid components if I make it again. Noted this in the recipe directions.
In honor of the 20th anniversary of the first episode of Friends, enjoy this gif and your donut bread pudding!
Bread Pudding and Beer 