Stale French bread soaked in a vanilla-cinnamon custard, baked until the top crisps and the inside turns lush and creamy, then drowned in a warm butter-and-bourbon whiskey sauce. The defining homestyle dessert of New Orleans.
Bread pudding came to Louisiana with thrifty French and Creole cooks who refused to waste the city's beloved but quickly-staling French bread. Soaked in custard and baked, it transformed yesterday's loaf into dessert; the boozy whiskey or bourbon sauce that crowns it is a New Orleans flourish, and grand restaurants like Commander's Palace turned the humble dish into a signature finale.
The crisp, almost caramelized top gives way to a warm, spoonable interior — somewhere between custard and cake — laced with vanilla, cinnamon, and plump raisins. Then the whiskey sauce arrives: buttery, sweet, with a boozy bourbon warmth that lingers. Served hot, it's pure comfort; the contrast of crunchy edges and soft middle is the whole point.
Stale bread is essential — dried-out crumb acts like a sponge, drinking up custard without turning to mush the way fresh bread would. The eggs set the custard into a sliceable pudding in the oven, while the sauce is finished off-heat so the bourbon's aroma isn't cooked away, keeping its boozy perfume intact.
Variations
White-chocolate bread pudding (Palace Cafe), rum sauce instead of whiskey, croissant-based versions, and a praline-pecan topping.
On the Palate
Where Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce (Louisiana) sits in the Cajun flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8
How it's made
7 steps · 20 min
- 18 min
Tear day-old French bread into chunks and pile into a buttered baking dish.
Watch outUse bread that's gone properly stale — dried-out crumb drinks the custard like a sponge, where fresh bread turns to paste.
- 25 min
Whisk eggs, milk, cream, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon into a custard.
- 330 min
Pour the custard over the bread and press down; let soak 30 minutes.
- 450 min
Scatter raisins over the top and bake at 350F/175C for 45-50 minutes until set and golden.
Watch outPull it when a knife in the center comes out clean and the top springs back — still jiggly-wet means the custard hasn't set.
- 55 min
For the sauce, melt butter with sugar and a splash of cream until smooth.
- 61 min
Off the heat, stir in bourbon whiskey to taste.
Watch outStir the bourbon in only after the pan is off the flame — cook it and you boil away the boozy perfume that's the whole point.
- 710 min
Let the pudding rest 10 minutes, then spoon the warm whiskey sauce generously over each serving.
