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Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding

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Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding is slightly sweet pumpkin bread paired with salty crunchy bacon and savory crisped sage create a dish worthy of entertaining. An impressive brunch dish or a unique twist on dinner.

Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding

There’s something about fall and pumpkin. If you’ve been around the blogging world much over the last month or so something seems to have possessed all the bloggers to make every dish imaginable with pumpkin. It was practically a Pumpkin Mania. I blame the Pumpkin Spice Latte. It’s ruined a whole nation (including myself).

But as I’m sure you have figured out…us Meyer’s are pretty much obsessed with originality. We love things that are weird and unique and just….us. And we tend to fight back pretty bitterly at the trends that fly around or try to tweak them to make them reflect our personalities (Eyebrow Party anyone?).

This recipe has been primed and ready to go for well over a month but I just couldn’t bring myself to join in on the pumpkin assault that was taking over your inbox. Plus in Georgia fall doesn’t really start until the middle of October so it felt weird before.

Now as the leaves are turning and we woke up to a rainy cloudy day….it feels right.

As far as I can tell on the web this is an absolute unique recipe idea. It was spawned out of a desperate attempt to use up the Pumpkin Brioche I had leftover from the Pumpkin Pie Doughnuts we made and get dinner on the table ASAP. I’ve been trying to break out of my pizza, pasta and taco’s mold and whip up some things that Kevin has mentioned that he loves.

One of those things is bread pudding. And somehow when the thought of bacon and pumpkin and sage came together in my mind I knew I had stumbled upon something epic. This dish is perfect for a beautiful brunch or a classy unexpected twist on dinner. Serve it sweet with syrup to blow away your guests or turn it super savory with gravy and a salad.

Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding

Start with two loaves of Pumpkin Brioche. Cube em up and toss them in a big bowl.

Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding

Pull a handful of fresh sage out of your garden or window box (are you still going to the store for fresh herbs?!? stop it right now!! Please buy some potted herbs as soon as physically possible.)

 Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding

Chop them up roughly. Breathe in their delicious musty aroma. Have visions of turkeys being stuffed and cooking all day long.

Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding

Cook up your bacon….you could use a half a package of bacon and feel good about your diet. Or you could cook the whole package and bask in the glory of flavor. Your choice of course.

Chop onion and throw the butter, garlic, and sage in with it all into a hot pan.

Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding

If you are massively crunched for time you can cook the bacon, and everything else all at once. But then you have to fish the bacon out of the craziness which could result in burnt fingertips. Not that I know that from experience or anything…

Chop up that bacon and set it aside.

Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding

Grate some cheese. For the love of all things holy please buy some good cheese. This isn’t the time for powdered Parmesan, this is magic in the making.

Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding

Mix in the cheese with milk, eggs, and spices. Heavy on the black pepper, a dash of salt, and a few dashes of cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg.

Breathe it in. It’s fall in a bowl baby.

Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding

Pour the milk mixture over the bread cubes allowing them to soak up all the goodness. Depending on your loaf sizes you may need more milk mixture than you start with. All the bread should be moistened.

Decisions, decisions. You must now make one. To add the bacon to the pudding mixture and the top….just the top….or just the pudding?

It’s your call. Think of it like a choose your own ending story book…..only don’t think so hard…all choices lead to delicious. We did half inside and half on top.

Whatever you choose to get that onion mixture added in your bowl and stir it in.

Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding

Pour into loaf pans and top with plenty of cheese and bacon and if you are feeling super fancy some crispy sage leaves.

Loaf pans give a taller more moist pudding texture, we cooked ours in a pyrex 9×11 pan and it was a bit dry because it was so shallow. Make sure all your bread is moistened well!

Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding

Bake for 30 min or until center is set. Top with fresh or crispy sage leaves and serve piping hot.

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Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding

Slightly sweet pumpkin bread paired with salty crunchy bacon and savory crisped sage create a dish worthy of entertaining. An impressive brunch dish or a unique twist on dinner.
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 2 -3 loaf
Print Pin Recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 loaves HBin5 Pumpkin Brioche
  • 1/2 to full package of bacon your choice
  • 1 large onion
  • 2-3 tb minced garlic
  • fresh sage
  • 1/2 stick of butter
  • 4 cups milk
  • 4-5 eggs add more if you like your bread pudding more eggy
  • 1 cup parmesan cheese divided in 2
  • salt and pepper
  • dash of nutmeg cinnamon, and allspice
  • Serving Suggestions:
  • Syrup or Brown or White Pepper Gravy

Instructions

  • 1. Cube the bread loaves. Place in a large mixing bowl.
    2. Cook bacon until crispy and remove to a cutting board.
    3. Melt butter in bacon fat and cook onion, garlic, and sage until sage is crispy and onions translucent.
    4. Mix milk, eggs, half of cheese and spices together.
    5. Pour over bread mixture. Mix well making sure all milk is absorbed. If the bread still looks dry increase your milk/egg/cheese combination until the bread is all moistened. Pressing into the milk with hands together lightly can help in absorption.
    6. Chop bacon. You can either add bacon into onion mixture at this point or reserve some or all of it for topping.
    7. Once the bread is moistened add onion mixture and stir well to incorporate.
    8. Fill bread loaf pans with mixture. (Pyrex dishes work but are really too shallow to get a nice tall bread pudding and they tend to dry out more than desired.)
    9. Top with reserved bacon if desired and plenty of cheese.
    10. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until the center is set.
    11. Serve with syrup or a brown or white pepper gravy

Notes

I speculate that this could also be turned dessert with cream cheese or comparable glaze. If you try it let me know!
Author: Dani Meyer
Course : *Easy Entertaining Dishes
easy recipe, dessert, recipe, bacon, entertaining, pudding, bread pudding, pumpkin, pumpkin bacon bread pudding

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About Dani Meyer

Hi, I’m Dani! I’m most importantly mama to 3 wild little dudes. I spend my days cooking, photographing and exploring the Pacific Northwest. I'm a full time food blogger and online business coach.

I’m the author of Stress Free Camping, a 120+ page guide on making epic food in the woods. I’m also the founder of Food Blogger Entrepreneurs, the leading online academy and private community for food bloggers. → More About Dani

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2 thoughts on “Pumpkin Bacon Bread Pudding”

  1. WOW…THIS… LOOKS…INCREDIBLE! We must make this during the holidays, Grandpa Bob will LOVE it! BACON BACON BACON, actually ALL the guys will love it lol! What a great idea, my mouth is watering 🙂

    Reply

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