Pressure Cooker Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding with a Caramel Pecan Sauce
Old fashioned bread pudding made with a wonderful cinnamon burst bread, “baked” in the pressure cooker and served with a rich caramel pecan sauce.
My sister was visiting last weekend and said I should create a Southern bread pudding recipe for the pressure cooker. Since I’m always up for a challenge, on Sunday I put one together for breakfast.
Making Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding with Caramel Pecan Sauce in an Instant Pot
Great Harvest Bread Company makes a wonderful Cinnamon Burst Bread that I often buy to make French Toast. Bread pudding and baked French Toast are essentially the same thing, so I knew it would make a great bread pudding.If you’re not lucky enough to live near a Great Harvest store, you could substitute brioche or French bread.
The caramel pecan sauce makes this more of a dessert than a breakfast, but I couldn’t resist serving it for breakfast. If you wanted to serve it for dessert, you could even add a little rum to the sauce.
Use an instant-read thermometer to verify your bread pudding is at least 160°F in the thickest part of the breast after cooking
Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding with a Caramel Pecan Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 3 cups whole milk
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 7 (3/4 inch) thick slices cinnamon bread, cubed and toasted*
- 1/2 cup raisins
CARAMEL PECAN SAUCE
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup corn syrup
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped
Instructions
In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown sugar, milk, beaten eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Mix in cubed bread and raisins. Let rest 20 minutes until the bread absorbs the milk, stirring occasionally.
Pour bread pudding into a buttered 1 1/2-quart glass or metal baking dish. (Be sure it fits in your pressure cooking pot.) Cover dish with foil. Prepare a foil sling for lifting the dish out of the pressure cooking pot by taking an 18” strip of foil and folding it lengthwise twice.
Pour 1 1/2 cups water into the pressure cooking pot and place the trivet in the bottom. Center the dish on the foil strip and lower it into the pressure cooker.
Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and set the timer for 20 minutes. When beep sounds, turn off pressure cooker, and do a quick pressure release to release the pressure. When valve drops carefully remove lid.
Remove dish from pressure cooking pot. If desired, put dish in preheated 350° oven for 5 - 10 minutes to crisp up the top.
Caramel Pecan Sauce
In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar, corn syrup, heavy cream, butter and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sauce comes to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until sugar is dissolved and sauce is smooth. Stir in vanilla and chopped pecans.
Notes
*Cube the bread and toast on a rimmed cookie sheet in 350º oven for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Cool bread before continuing with recipe. Can be done earlier in the day or the night before.
Pingback: Pressure Cooker Raspberry Orange Bread Pudding - Pressure Cooking Today™
I make cinnamon raisin bread pudding with Jameson sauce for Saint Patricks Day..This year we are expecting about 50 for corned beef,potatoes,carrots,rolls and pudding…
I have always mafe in pudding but this year I think ill use my pressure cooker…the only thing I don’t like is I don’t think I can use a liner like i do in the sliw cooker….what do you think?
Sounds like a fun party. You can’t use slow cooker liners in the pressure cooker.
I made this and it was extra delicious!! I followed the Pepperidge Farm cinnamon conversion suggestion from another poster above and it worked out very well (11 slices of bread)
The caramel topping is perfect – I added more butter after it had cooled to make it less sticky -I probably cooked it too long originally- and it softened nicely and more toffee flavor as an added bonus!
Thank you for sharing Barbara:)
Are you supposed to put the sauce on the pudding or spoon it on each piece as you eat it?
Hi Amanada – I prefer to spoon it on each piece as you eat it. Enjoy!
Can’t wait to try this recipe. I love all the bread from Great Harvest!
Barbara, have you ever heard of baking monkey bread in the pressure cooker using refrigerated dough like biscuits or cinnamon roles?
Hi Nancy – I haven’t seen anyone do it, but it might work. If you give it a try let me know.
Very easy and forgiving recipe. I don’t bother toasting the bread and it’s just fine. I love the foil sling trick! Really delicious. I added cinnamon and nutmeg, too. Try it with hawaiian bread!
Thanks Amanda! Hawaiian bread does sound like a delicious idea.
You say to cover the dish with foil. Can the lid that came with the casserole dish be used instead?
Thank you for being so generous to share your expertise with us.
Your Lemon Cheese cake was the first I have ever made and it turned out
perfectly. Thanks again.
How large are your cubes? 1″? 1/2″ ???
Thanks!
Hi Rita – 3/4″ to 1″ cubes.
Thank you Barbara. I made this last night to use this morning as a mock French toast. I used a whole 1-pound loaf of Pepperidge Farm Swirl 100% whole wheat cinnamon with raisins. Its slices are only 1/2 inch thick but I cut roughly 1-inch squares and those worked well. The Pepperidge Farm bread is quite sweet and made the pudding too sweet for our tastes; next time I’ll probably skip the brown sugar, even though I’ll probably miss the flavor.
I used your 3-egg proportion of liquids as written and it worked out quite well. I’m on the fence about scaling the liquids up to use 4 eggs for a looser, more pudding-like consistency, but it worked very well for the mock French toast.
I used a serving spoon to scoop out about 1/2-inch-thick slices of the pudding and spread them out on a small foil-lined sheet pan and broiled them for 5 or 10 minutes until the surface crisped up a bit. By deleting the sugar, I’ll be able to serve it with maple syrup.
Next time I might try lining a 7-inch springform pan with a parchment circle and cooking the 3-egg pudding in it so that I can unmold it after it cools. It will be soft but just might hold together when cooled. That way I might be able to slice it or wedge it before broiling it. Broiling it in chunks would be another option if it falls apart (otherwise known as Plan B). We loved the crispy edges on the pudding.
Thanks for another winner that can be used for dessert or for breakfast!
Thanks so much for sharing Rita! I love the idea of serving it for breakfast as French toast.
But what’s a 3egg pudding lol
Made this today and it was wonderful. I didn’t know wether to keep the Carmel on the side my wife said put it on the pudding, so I did.
Your times were right on, as were the volumes. I used Peperidge Farm Cinamon Swirl. It is good but thinne than your Cinamon Burst. I calculated I would need 11 slices, and it did. Thanks for the delicious recipe!
Thanks Jerry – so glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the info on using Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Swirl bread.
You scratched my itching for pressure cooker rice pudding, and it’s awesome. Now, I’ve been yearning for a good bread pudding. Well played!
To give that recipe — which looks and sounds amazing — a New Orleans flare, add a little bourbon to the sauce!
That makes total sense 🙂 Thanks Vicki
Wow does that look decadent and delicious. That Great Harvest bread looks amazing-we can’t get that around here…..maybe that’s a good thing-I don’t think I could stay out of it. I bet it makes one yummy French toast.
That sauce takes that pudding to a whole new galaxy. I’ve only made bread pudding with Panettone-I’ll have to give this one a whirl in the pressure cooker.
Thanks Barbara-and thanks to your sister for that great idea! 🙂
Thanks Carol – can you believe I’ve never had a Panettone bread pudding.