Vegan Bread Pudding with Pears
This classic bread pudding is upgraded with tender pears, cardamom and walnuts. This vegan dessert is dairy-free, yet total comfort food with the addition of sprouted grain bread which makes it high in filling fibre and plant-based protein. It’s an amazing vegan dessert, or even a deluxe brunch!
Ingredients
- 6 slices Silver Hills Oat So Lovely Sprouted Grain Bread or another sprouted grain variety
- 3 cups unsweetened oat milk or soy milk vanilla is nice here if you have it
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 apple or firm pear peeled, cored and diced
- ½ cup pecan or walnut pieces
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius) and place a sheet of aluminum foil on the oven rack to catch any drips as the bread pudding cooks.
- Grease a 8 inch round baking dish and cut a piece of parchment to fit the bottom.
- Cut each slice of bread into 1 inch (2.5cm) cubes. Layer half the bread, half the pear, half the walnuts into the baking dish, repeating with remaining ingredients. Set aside.
- Whisk together oat milk, cornstarch, vanilla, cardamom salt and maple syrup in a small pan until smooth. Bring to a boil on medium heat. Let boil gently for ten minutes, whisking frequently, to thicken and infuse milk.
- If you need to, lower the heat so it doesn’t bubble over or scald. The custard will coat the back of a spoon nicely when you’re done.
- Evenly pour the custard over the bread and gently press bread into the custard so every piece gets soaked.
- Sprinkle a bit more cardamom on top, then carefully place in oven (it will be hot!). Bake for 45-50 minutes until bread tops are golden and the custard is thick and bubbling at the edges.
- Let cool for 10 minutes. Enjoy warm or room temperature with a little scoop of cashew ice cream if you like!
Notes
This is a really adaptable recipe!! Try a few of these fun variations:
Ginger: add 1/3 cup diced crystalized ginger, swap 1 tsp cinnamon for the cardamom, and chopped macadamia nuts for pecans
Cinnamon Bun: swap cinnamon for cardamom, add ¼ cup raisins
Dark Chocolate: Whisk ½ cup of dark chocolate chips into custard in last two minutes of cooking.