Cream Cheese

Don't Hold The Anything Breakfast Bread Pudding

by:
November 19, 2011
4
4 Ratings
Photo by Jennifer Causey
  • Serves One 9x9 behemoth
Author Notes

You know how at breakfast you order waffles and sausage and as you are happily dragging everything through maple syrup one of your pals digs into their eggs and you think "I LOVE eggs" then someone else is eating cheesy blintzes and you're all "Oh man I would really like a cheesy blintz" - then you are reduced to mooching bites off everyone and they may not actually want to share ... well here is problem solved. Everything you ever wanted in breakfast in one soft in the middle crunchy on top sweet and savory breafast bonanza. Another plus - you assemble the night before so in the morning just pop it in the oven, get the orange juice glasses chilling and then go walk the dog, do some yoga, run a load of wash, drink too much coffee and breath in the aroma. This is a buxom lass that won't be rushed, she takes a rather long time to bake so keep busy! Or I guess you could go back to bed for ahwile. —aargersi

Test Kitchen Notes

You'll never have to worry about picking sweet or savory at breakfast again. This bread pudding combines the best of both worlds into a delicious, easy-to-make breakfast. It's a balance of sweet and savory wrapped into one delicious, rich package. Feel free to play around with the cream cheese and sage to get it just right for your tastes —Stephanie Bourgeois

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Ingredients
  • 1 pound pork sausage
  • 6 cups cut up french bread - about 1/2" - I sliced then hand tear the slices
  • 3 cups milk
  • 8 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 4 sage leaves
  • 4 ounces cream cheese
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 2 teaspoons maple sugar
  • butter for the pan
Directions
  1. The night before - cook the pork sausage until it is nicely browned (if it's in links, remove the casing)
  2. Mince the sage and toss it with your torn up bread in a large bowl.
  3. Whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper, then pour it over the bread. Stir it around several times, let it sit, stir again. Butter a 9x9 baking dish. Stir the bread again. Most of the liquid should be absorbed. Spread half of the bread mixture in the bottom of the baking dish. Use a slotted spoon to remove the sausage from its pan and spread it over the bread. Now dot the cream cheese in with the sausage. Top with the remaining bread and pour any unabsorbed custard over the top. Cover and stick it in the fridge.
  4. Go to bed. Wake up. Pull the pudding out of the fridge and drizzle the maple syrup over it, then sprinkle the maple sugar. Put it into the oven and turn the heat to 350. Go do stuff (see head note) because this is gonna take awhile - it will turn dark golden brown and crunchy on top and puff up into a nice dome (buxom, remember?) mine took an hour and 20 minutes.
  5. Let it rest for a little bit - then dig in. Cold OJ is great alongside!

See what other Food52ers are saying.

Recipe by: aargersi

Country living, garden to table cooking, recent beek, rescue all of the dogs, #adoptdontshop

39 Reviews

krikri March 12, 2017
TLDR: Yum!
Toasted the bread cubes first. Served honey (not maple syrup) alongside instead of baking with it on, like Virginia did. And threw some spinach on top of the sausage and cream cheese.
Delicious combination of flavours!
Niknud November 29, 2016
I just recommended this recipe to a friend of mine for Thanksgiving weekend. He loved it. His family loved it. He brought me in a small ramekin of leftovers and, yup, I still love it. I found this recipe when I was trying to develop my own bread pudding sausage breakfast recipe a while ago and promptly abandoned my efforts. So delicious. Fatty numnums all around!
aargersi November 29, 2016
Fatty Numnums :-)
Virginia January 1, 2016
This was fantastic! I made it for New Year's morning when what you really want is a solid, delicious breakfast with absolutely no effort. I followed the recipe exactly except I left the maple syrup off and let folks pour their own syrup on themselves. Mine took about 1 hour 10 minutes to cook. This is a total keeper!
aargersi January 1, 2016
Yay I am so glad you like it! Happy new year!
gaelnyc December 18, 2015
This sounds perfect for Christmas morning. Wondering if it's okay to use combo of Pumpkin Bagels & Sourdough bread since that's what I have on hand. I also have some maple link chicken sausage that I need to use. I also have some pumpkin cream cheese. Thought I'd add a little sour cream to balance the sweetness. Other than these 3 subs, I'll follow the recipe as written. Let me know if you think these subs/additions will work. Thank you for an inspiring recipe.
aargersi December 19, 2015
That sounds fantastic!! I think you will need to add a little extra milk and eggs to account for the bagels, I bet they will really soak it up. Now I want to make it for Christmas too!
gaelnyc December 21, 2015
Thank you Abbie. Hope you and your family have a great holiday Enjoy the bread pudding! I'm making this on Dec. 24 for Christmas morning.
Kelly K. December 29, 2014
I made this for Christmas morning breakfast - made it the night before and baked in the morning. It was simple and delish. Will be making it again, and probably trying variations to include veggies. Thanks for the recipe!
Stacy November 16, 2014
If at all possible wait for this to get really crisp in the oven. So worth it! Will be making again.
dani July 21, 2013
I made this for a baby shower yesterday. Everyone said it was the best dish served and it was! Thanks Abby. It was delish!
lksugarman December 10, 2012
Okay! I used gluten-free whole grain Udi's hamburger buns, substituted bacon, and added blackberries. Yum! Should've toasted the buns first, but still really great. Oh, and I used a combination of butter and bacon grease on the dish. Another yum!
Ambitious December 4, 2012
I ALWAYS have this problem at breakfast - sweet or salty? I can't wait to make this. :)
TheLearningCook October 2, 2012
I made this for a staff meeting and it was a big hit. =)
aargersi October 2, 2012
I am so pleased! A nip is in the air - the season for this is for sure coming back around even in the Southwest!!
wssmom March 23, 2012
So glad to see this here!! Love ....
hardlikearmour January 31, 2012
This is seriously fantastic! Perfect balance of sweet and savory that makes it impossible not to eat too much. Thanks, aargersi!
arielleclementine January 30, 2012
this is the most insanely delicious food every created! abbie is a super genius.
LeBec F. January 17, 2012
Aside from your recipe, i LOVE your recipe title! Great titles are an art form in and of themselves, you clever girl!
Southern S. January 5, 2012
Made this for Christmas morning breakfast. Absolutely fabulous!
kumalavula January 2, 2012
made this for a new year's day brunch and it disappeared quickly. everyone loved it. i agree with the other comments posted here- it's every flavor you'd want for breakfast wrapped under a nice sugary crust.
stephenzr December 30, 2011
Looks delicious. This will fix my sweet tooth but limit my blood sugar spike! Just added it to my 4teaspoons account to try.
JadeTree December 25, 2011
Thanks for the great Christmast breakfast! There were glances askance at the maple syrup but the sweet, crisp crust over the puffy yet creamy eggs and sausage won everyone over. Put in much more sage since my leaves were quite puny but to great effect. This may turn up again for New Year's breakfast, by resounding request.
SurvivingMyKitchen December 25, 2011
I made this with a gluten-free baguette and sprinkled the top with demerrara (sp?) sugar. It turned out AMAZING!!! We couldn't stop eating it! Thanks so much for a great recipe. Merry Christmas!
NM E. December 22, 2011
What??? No bacon???
:)