Mennonite Girls Can Cook is a collection of recipes which were posted daily for a period of ten years from 2008 to 2018. We have over 3,000 delicious recipes that we invite you to try. The recipes can be accessed in our recipe file by category or you can use the search engine.

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Coconut Bread Pudding

Bread pudding used to be referred to as poor man's pudding. I remember my Mom making this pudding as a way of salvaging stale bread, nothing was wasted. And since milk and eggs were plentiful on the farm this dessert could be made with little cost. When I made this bread pudding I sure wasn't thinking that it tasted like a 'poor man's pudding' but rather it had a wonderfully rich flavour and the sauce just put it over the top. Mom didn't make a sauce and we ate the pudding plain. This is a large recipe but can easily be halved.
  • 12 slices bread, thickly sliced (diced and crust can be left on or off, your choice) this can be stale or fresh  I used pannetone bread and left the crust on
  • 3 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 3/4 cup sugar  if using a sweetened bread you could use 1/2 cup sugar
  • 9 eggs
  • 3/4 cup coconut
  • 1 1/2 cups whipping cream or increase milk and decrease cream as long as you have 3 cups
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
1. Dice bread and set aside.
2. Using a large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, cream, melted butter, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and coconut. Beat until well blended.
3. Add diced bread and mix with a spoon until all the bread is covered in the liquid. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and allow bread to absorb the liquid for 1 hour. Give the mixture a stir once in awhile.
4. Put bread mixture into a greased 9" x 12" pan or individual baking dishes.
5. Bake in a 350ยบ oven for 45 to 50 minutes.
Allow to sit 5 minutes before serving.

Serve with ice cream or Bailey's Irish Cream Sauce:
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 2 cups whipping cream
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 6 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream
  • 2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water
1. Heat whipping cream till scalding, not boiling. Continue to stir so it doesn't burn. I heated the cream in the microwave and didn't stir at all while it heated.
2. In small bowl whisk egg yolks, sugar and Bailey's. Add a little scalded milk to the bowl to bring up the temperature of the yolks.
3. Add yolk mixture to scalded milk slowly, whisking the whole time.
4. Place bowl back in microwave and cook for a few min stirring a 2 or 3 times.
5. Add cornstarch and water mixture and cook for a few more minutes until sauce thickens, stirring a few times in between.
6. Pour into a pitcher and serve hot with warm bread pudding. This is a very smooth sauce and can be reheated, but with a few reheats it changes texture a bit although it still tastes just as good!!
In this photo the sauce had been reheated and it doesn't look as creamy as it does when first cooked.

20 comments:

  1. BettyR, this is a fab bread pudding recipe. Mine tend to be pretty plain (for the first time I added raisins and almonds LOL and thought I was something!), but with coconut and a sauce. I'd serve this to statesmen and royalty. Wow!

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  2. This looks really good and what a great way to use up stale bread :) Yummmm!

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  3. Bread Pudding was our most common dessert. Mom always made a Cornstarch Sauce-sugar, cornstarch, water. This is elegant in comparison.

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  4. How scrumptious! I would not be able to stop eating! Yummy!

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  5. Anything with coconut is good in my opinion,so this sounds fantastic.
    Blessings,Ruth

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  6. Ohhhh Yum! We love coconut and this will be in this weeks to try pile. Thanks for posting.

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  7. you farm girl you...looks amazing!

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  8. That looks so yummy! I ahve been hungry for bread pudding..so I just may have to try this out. Kathy

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  9. This looks terrific! The Irish Cream in the sauce lifts it to company standards.

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  10. Yummy.....got some left??? I will be right over!
    Thanks Betty....keep on posting!

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  11. oops, sorry Betty I forgot to include my name.

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  12. This looks absolutely wonderful. I love even plain bread pudding! I' will for sure try this.

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  13. Here's one I plan to try! It looks fabulous.

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  14. Oh Betty...I sure should have known, before scrolling down, that this was your recipe! Grin. I know you love your coconut and this looks super delicious! Love it. I am thinking this would be a great idea for tomorrow's staff ....starting of a New Year with a bit of a treat...what do you think?!

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  15. This keeps coming back to mind. . .I think I'll need to make it soon...very soon.

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  16. OH MY!!! Thank you for sharing this recipe! I made this the other night and it is SO GOOD!!! Thank you for equipping us with lovely and tasty recipes :)

    ~Sharon

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  17. This looks so delicious. I just came across your blog and everything looks so good!

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  18. We recently took a trip up north, and had a delicious coconut bread pudding in Whithorse, Yukon. I believe the one we had was made with sour dough bread, and also had raisins in it. I will most certainly try this recipe. Thanks for posting it.

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