Skip to main content
Dessert

Walnut Bread Pudding

A custard-like pudding made from cubed bread, walnuts, milk, eggs, vanilla, and sugar, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Walnut Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the cubed bread, chopped walnuts, and sugar.

  3. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, and vanilla.

  4. Pour the milk mixture over the bread mixture and stir to combine.

  5. Transfer the mixture to a greased baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set and golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Walnut + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,730 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the structure that soaks up the custard and holds the pudding together.
Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding its firm, sliceable texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid custard that moistens the bread and carries the flavour through.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown as the pudding bakes.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavour against the soft custard.

The step that matters

Pour the milk mixture over the bread mixture and stir to combine. The bread needs time to absorb the custard evenly; if it is left dry in spots, those patches stay dense and bready while wet areas turn soggy. Stirring thoroughly ensures even soaking before baking.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, vanilla, milk, sugar, egg):

  1. Cocoafits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Almondfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, vanilla, milk, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipes