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This strawberry vanilla bread pudding is to die for! Delicious French bread coated and baked in a creamy strawberry custard and topped with fresh strawberry slices and vanilla caramel sauce.
This week, we wanted to create a delicious recipe with strawberries. Every spring and summer our parents grow strawberries in their back yard, so this is nod to the beginning of strawberry season.
Traditionally, bread pudding is made in the cooler months of fall and winter, but we wanted to break the mold and create a delicious, fresh flavored bread pudding for the warmer months.
The fresh strawberry flavor brightened this bread pudding. Plus, we swapped out all of the refined sugar, regular milk and heavy cream for healthier alternatives.
The healthy swaps do not take away from the flavor of the bread pudding at all. We shared this with some of our neighbors and they absolutely loved it.
When we say this may be the best recipe on our blog, we aren’t kidding! You’re going to have to make this for your next dinner with friends and family or for your next weekend brunch!
Healthier Strawberry Vanilla Bread Pudding
What’s in this recipe?
French bread: French bread adds an incredible flavor and texture to this recipe. If you want, you can substitute French bread with your favorite challah bread or brioche loaf.
Strawberry preserves: Adding strawberry preserves to the milk custard mixture adds a fresh strawberry taste to every bite.
Almond Milk: Instead of using regular milk for this bread pudding, we used almond milk. It’s such a great substitute to make this dessert lighter and healthier. If you don’t have almond milk any other alternative milk (oat milk, coconut milk, cashew milk etc.) would be totally fine too!
Grass Fed Butter: We try to only use grass fed butter in all of our recipes. Not only is it healthier for you, but it has such a delicious flavor. Check out our favorite grass fed butter here.
Coconut Sugar: If you’ve been skeptical about coconut sugar, this recipe will change your perspective on it. The coconut sugar adds a yummy, rich, caramel flavor to this bread pudding.
Maple Syrup: The addition of a hint of maple syrup adds incredible depth and sweetness to this recipe.
Eggs: Eggs are traditionally used in bread pudding to create the delicious custard that the bread soaks up and bakes in.
Vanilla: Adding a tablespoon of vanilla is the perfect flavor to compliment the fresh strawberries.
Strawberries: We had to add chopped strawberries to this bread pudding. They help define the strawberry flavor and you get a fresh strawberry in every bite.
Slivered Almonds: The slivered almonds add a crunch to this bread pudding.
Here are the details…
Many healthy recipes can get complicated really fast. We always like to keep our recipes super simple to make even if the ingredients are healthier. We want to break the stigma that eating healthier is more complicated, that’s why we created this super simple bread passing recipe.
Some more simple healthy recipes:
Spinach Mushroom Dairy Free Quiche (Gluten Free Crust)
Spiced Maple Apricot Granola with Big Chunks
The Best Gluten-Free Oat Flour Blueberry Muffins with Cardamom Crumble
First, cut your French bread into cubes. You can make them as large or small as you would like. We prefer a thick texture, so we made our cubes about 1-inch thick. Add the bread cubes to a greased casserole dish and toast in the oven for 10 minutes.
While the bread is in the oven, melt your butter over the stove or in the microwave. Mix in the almond milk into the butter. Allow the mixture to cool and then stir in the strawberry preserves.
In a medium size bowl, add eggs, sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, and the milk mixture and mix well. Pour the mixture over the bread. Fold in sliced strawberries and place some on top.
If you have time to allow the mixture to soak into the bread, cover the dish with plastic wrap for an hour before baking in the oven.
If you don’t have time to let the bread soak, that’s totally fine. It will be just as delicious! You can pop it in the oven right away!
Next, bake the bread pudding in the oven for 35-45 minutes. We know the each oven bakes things differently. Ours bakes things pretty quickly so we only had to bake it for 35 minutes. You can decide on your own what time works best for your oven. You just want to make sure that the center isn’t super mushy.
The Caramel Vanilla Sauce
While the bread mixture is in the oven, combine all sauce ingredients except vanilla in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, 5-8 minutes or until mixture thickens and comes to a full boil. Next, stir in 1 tablespoon vanilla.
We put ours in the freezer for about 10 minutes to thicken even more. As the sauce cools, it will get thicker.
Pour the sauce on each individual serving of bread pudding or pour it all over the top!
Lastly, if you make this Healthier Strawberry Vanilla Bread Pudding, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating!
We love to hear from our Mozie Fam and always do my best to respond to each and every comment.
If you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag us on Instagram!
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Healthier Strawberry Vanilla Bread Pudding
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 10 people 1x
Description
A delicious sweet strawberry dish perfect for a dinenr party with friends or a weekend brunch.
Ingredients
Strawberry Vanilla Bread Pudding
- 1 loaf French bread (cut in cubes)
- 1/4 cup strawberry preserves
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 eggs (beaten)
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 cups diced/sliced strawberries
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
Vanilla Caramel Sauce
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar
- 1/2 cup coconut cream
- 1 tbsp vanilla
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 F. Grease casserole pan with coconut oil.
- Add French bread cubes to the casserole dish and toast them in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Combine almond milk and butter butter in 1-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat 4-7 minutes or until butter is melted. Let the mixture cool for a couple of minutes and mix in the strawberry preserves.
- In a medium size bowl, add eggs, sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, and the milk mixture and mix well.
- Pour the milk mixture over the top of the bread. Fold in the sliced strawberries and add a few to the top. If you have time, cover the dish with plastic wrap and allow to sit in the fridge for 1 hour. If you don’t have enough time, you can bake the bread pudding right away in the oven.
- Bake 40-45 minutes or until set in center.
- While the bread mixture is in the oven, combine all sauce ingredients except vanilla in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, 5-8 minutes or until mixture thickens and comes to a full boil. Next, stir in 1 tablespoon vanilla.
- Spoon warm pudding into individual dessert dishes; serve with sauce.
- If you have leftovers, store in refrigerator.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Breakfast, Dessert
- Cuisine: American
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