Upside down apple bread pudding creates a beautiful pattern of sliced apples on your bread pudding. Easy to make, with just a few simple ingredients.
Upside Down Apple Bread Pudding
This apple bread pudding is designed to work like an upside down cake. You put the fruit on the bottom, then when the apple bread pudding is done, you flip it over and remove the pan so the fruit is on top.
Feel free to add a shot of your favorite liquor to the custard before mixing it with the bread. My favorites for adding to bread pudding are rum, brandy, and cognac.
Since all bread puddings are essentially custards poured over bread, it’s handy to have an instant read thermometer so that you can tell exactly when your bread pudding is done. It’s much easier than just trying to guess. As soon as the temperature in the middle of the bread pudding reaches 175 F, it’s done.
Try this instant read thermometer, if you don’t already have one. It’s cheap and reliable.
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Upside Down Apple Bread Pudding
Apple bread pudding has gone upside down! You'll love this awesome and easy bread pudding recipe. Try not to eat it all at one sitting.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar divided
- 1 medium baking apple I use Pink Lady or Honeycrisp
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 2 cups whole milk
- 4 large eggs
- 8 ounces bread I used soft dinner rolls
Instructions
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Cut up the bread into roughly equal pieces, about 1 inch each.
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Put the butter in a 9 inch round cake pan. Place it in a cold oven and preheat the oven to 400 F. Watch the butter; when it melts, take out the pan.
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In the pan, mix 1/2 cup brown sugar into the butter and pat it evenly over the pan bottom. Set aside. Core and slice the apple into 8 equal pieces, then cut each piece one more time to make 16 slices. Arrange the slices like flower petals on top of the butter/sugar mixture in the pan.
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To fill in the gap in the middle, cut a few triangular apple pieces and arrange in the middle.
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In a large mixing bowl, combine the granulated sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add the milk and stir to combine. Beat in the eggs. Drop in the bread pieces and massage with your hands to break them up some more and get them to absorb the most liquid.
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Scoop the bread and custard mixture into the cake pan and pat it down evenly on top of the apples and butter/sugar mixture. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
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After 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 300 F and continue baking for about 30 minutes, or until the temperature in the middle of the bread pudding reaches 175 F. Remove from the oven and let cool for 30 minutes.
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Run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the pudding, then top the pan with a platter and invert. The bread pudding should drop neatly onto the platter. Continue cooling for another 30 minutes. Serve slightly warm, or place in the refrigerator and chill completely.
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Jerry
I love this! It looks like a cross between a pudding and an upside-down cake. Definitely on my list of things to try in the near future. Pinned!
Florian @ContentednessCooking
This looks amazing, yum!
Amy @ Accidental Happy Baker
Wow, that looks fantastic. I absolutely love bread pudding, but I’ve never made it myself. When I get the hankering for it I always sweet talk my husband’s Grandma into making some for me. She tops hers with meringue! I think this apple version would be delicious.
Katie
Meringue?? Cool! I’ve never seen that done, but I’d love to try it sometime.
Sabrina @ Dinner, then Dessert
My husband loves bread puddings! I have to try this one for him!
Katie
I think he’ll like it! 🙂
Razii
Can this be done in a sauce pan rather than in the oven ??
Katie Moseman
Bread puddings need to be baked in the oven- they won’t cook all the way through in a sauce pan. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Victoria
I don’t see vanilla in the ingredients but it is in the video. How much vanilla?
Victoria
I see the amount of vanilla in the video is shown. Is the vanilla optional, since not listed in ingredients?
Katie Moseman
Hi Victoria! When Buzzfeed made the video of my recipe, they changed it- my recipe didn’t originally include vanilla. But you can add a teaspoon of vanilla- it’s good either way.
Kalie
Hello!
I was wondering if you’ve ever made this ahead of time and reheated to serve? I need something different to take to Thanksgiving at my brother’s house-I’d love to bake this in the morning and reheat it after dinner. Let me know if you have any thoughts! Thanks for the awesome recipe.
Katie Moseman
Hi! This reheats beautifully. It should be served warm, not hot, so let it cool down a bit if it gets very hot while reheating the oven. Happy Thanksgiving!
Kathie
I would like to see alot less sugar and fat in the Tasty recipes. 33gms of sugar is far too much! Our society eats far to much sugar so help us all eat less. Many recipes need next to no sugar to be delicious.
Katie Moseman
Hi Kathie! It’s actually my recipe, but Tasty made a video out of it. It’s pretty indulgent; you’re right. So I try not to make this one every day. My go-to dessert has about half the sugar: https://recipeforperfection.com/gluten-free-apple-crisp/
It’s a gluten free apple crisp, but you can also make it with regular all purpose flour.
For the Upside Down Apple Pudding, you can try reducing the sugar to taste. Most people I’ve cooked for prefer a higher level of sweetness, thus the total amount of sugar in this particular recipe, but it can definitely be adjusted down and still taste quite good. Hope this helps!
Eva
I don’t own a cake pan, can I make this in a loaf pan, a Pyrex dish or would a pie plate be better?
Katie Moseman
I’d avoid the loaf pan. The depth is so different from a cake pan that it might throw off whether the pudding cooks through. A Pyrex dish or a pie plate would work. You’d have to make sure you didn’t overfill the dish or plate, so, depending on the size of the container, you may have some leftover soaked bread that doesn’t fit. Use the same technique mentioned in the recipe to check for doneness: when it reaches 175 F in the middle, it’s done. You can also tell when it’s done because the center will jiggle, but will not slosh. Hope this helps! Good luck and happy Thanksgiving!
Ann
Could you do this in a 9x 13 pan?
Katie Moseman
If you use the recipe as-is, the bread pudding would be quite shallow and would cook faster. For a 9 by 13 pan, I would double the recipe and expect it to cook longer. If you have an instant read thermometer, that will help you pinpoint exactly when it’s done.
Candy
I notice on the video that it shows vanilla extract but on this recipe page, there is no vanilla in the ingredients. Should vanilla be added?
Katie Moseman
Hi Candy! Buzzfeed made the video, but it was inspired by my recipe. They adapted it and made some changes. In my recipe, I leave out the vanilla, because I like the apple flavor to come through very clearly, but you could absolutely add some vanilla extract and it would taste quite good. Vanilla is included in most recipes for bread pudding because bread pudding, by itself, is on the plain side. This fruity version leaves it out because of the fruit. Hope this helps! Enjoy!
Amy
I always think of bread pudding as a way to use leftover bread from dinner the night before. So, when I had waffles leftover from Christmas brunch, I thought why not try it in this recipe…delicious! This is an easy, delicious recipe. Thank you!! Do you think plums or nectarines would work?
Katie Moseman
Thank you for the kind words!
I’ve used peaches successfully. Sometimes, soft fruit can get a bit mushy, but it really depends on the type and age of the fruit itself. I’d say give it a try and see how it goes. 🙂
Bruce Deniger
LOVED THIS
Ginny
Made this tonight, and it’s delicious. I used 2 apples, 1 sliced thin like the shape in the picture, the other chopped very tiny to fill in all the gaps. Definitely going into my recipe box.
Heather
I made your original recipe of the and it was delicious an so easy! I am going try tomato it tonight but in a gluten free version with gluten free bread. I’ll keep you posted on my results.
Katie Moseman
That is awesome! I actually wrote this recipe a year or two before finding out that I could no longer consume gluten in any form. So, now I just make it with gluten free bread. The recipe works exactly the same. 🙂
Carla
A great starter recipe. Needs more cinnamon and i added some nutmeg. Think it would have been better with the apples folded in and not an upside pudding.
Melanie Adams
Just made this today. I only had half of a super stale baguette left, just under 5oz, so I halved the recipe and made it in a loaf pan. I inserted a temp probe while it was baking and took it out when it hit 175F. So yummy!