Any time is a good time for this delicious Vegan Pumpkin Bread Pudding made with wholegrain bread. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves add a festive touch. This recipe can be made with gluten-free bread.
The days are getting short and cold again and the holidays will be here before you know it. So here's a recipe to get you into the mood for winter and all the festivities that go with it. My Vegan Pumpkin Bread Pudding.
This is a decadent pudding. It's utterly delicious with a creamy, maple-sweetened custard sauce that seeps and soaks into the wholegrain bread, making it melt in your mouth as you take bite after bite. But you don't have to wait for dessert to eat it. It's healthy enough to eat for breakfast.
Or, if you're someone who likes eating breakfast for dinner, you wouldn't go wrong with this pudding.
What's not to love here? There's pumpkin here, so we have our veggies. And there's wholegrain bread here, so we have our healthy carbs. Tofu and cashews add lots of protein. In other words, it's a full meal in a baking dish.
I use maple syrup to sweeten my custard sauce and it adds a rich note while keeping the sugary part of this dessert from getting unhealthy. Cloves, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg add a wonderful, deep hint of spice that rounds out the creamy custard beautifully.
This vegan Pumpkin Bread Pudding recipe comes together in minutes. Most of the prep work is done in the food processor and you don't have to leave the uncooked pudding standing overnight for the custard to soak into the bread, like some recipes call for.
Here are some additional tips to mix things up, make your life a little easier, and ensure success:
- Use any winter squash. Pumpkin is great, but butternut or kabocha would work here too.
- You can roast your own squash. Cut into 1-inch cubes after peeling, toss with 1 teaspoon oil, and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 40 minutes or until a fork goes through cleanly and without resistance.
- You don't need to make this pudding the night before, but no one says you can't. If you want to have an easier morning, assemble the pudding the previous night, place in the refrigerator covered tightly with plastic wrap, and bake the next morning (after taking off the cling wrap, of course!)
- If you don't have maple syrup, or don't want to use it, go with another natural sweetener, like turbinado sugar.
Related recipes
- Vegan Pumpkin Bread (with Maple Coconut Glaze)
- Vegan Gluten-free Pumpkin Praline Tart
- Chai-Spiced Vegan Pumpkin Cake
- Vegan Pumpkin Brown Rice Pudding
- More vegan breakfast recipes here.
This recipe makes for 10-12 generous servings, so it's a great one to cook for a large group. I love serving it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert, or with some vegan whipped cream for breakfast. But you don't even need those bells and whistles. My favorite way to eat it is to just scoop it out of the baking dish with my fingers. Yum.
Vegan Pumpkin Bread Pudding recipe:
Vegan Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Ingredients
- 1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
- 1 cup raw cashews
- ½ package (7 oz) extra firm tofu
- 1 cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon (powdered)
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg (powdered)
- ½ teaspoon cloves (powdered)
- ½ teaspoon ginger (powdered)
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 7-8 slices (8 cups) wholegrain or multigrain bread, cut into ½-inch chunks
Instructions
- Place the cashews in a high-powered blender with 3 cups water and blitz until very smooth. If your blender is not high-powered, soak the cashews first for at least 30 minutes.
- In a food processor or a large bowl, whisk together the cashew milk, maple syrup, pumpkin puree, tofu, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and vanilla extract. You will need to blend the tofu separately first if you're not using a food processor in order to get it smooth.
- Spray a 9 X 12 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Arrange the cut pieces of bread in a single layer and pour over the custard evenly. Let the pudding stand at least 30 minutes, during which the bread will soak up a lot of the custard.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Just before baking, give the pudding a quick stir. Don't be too heavy-handed or you'll mush up the bread pieces.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes.
- Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Christian Joiner
Instead of cashews, can I use coconut milk? If so, how many cups? Also do I have to use tofu?
Vaishali
Three cups! And the tofu gives it an extra creaminess.
Joanne Annese
Can you use pumfu or something besides soy tofu
Vaishali
Yes! Pumfu would definitely work here.
Kathy
Am I to assume that wants the cashew cream is made, it will just be added to everything else (syrup, tofu, cinnamon, etc.)? After making the cashew cream, you don’t really say what to do with that, and while it might be obvious to most people, I don’t want to make a mistake. I would appreciate your comments. Thank you!
Soymoon
There's no mention of the cashew milk.
Does it go in the custard?
Does it go over the finished dish?
Vaishali
It gets blended with the rest of the custard ingredients in step 2!
Phyllis
Did you mean Vegan vanilla ice cream? I would love to know the brand since I have been unable to find anything vegan that passes for "ice Cream".
Vaishali
Trader Joe's Soy Creamy. There are several vegan vanilla ice creams now on store shelves.
Andi
We have breakfast for dinner sometimes to mix it up, and I made this bread pudding today for my four-year-old twins. They asked for seconds and thirds. It was so delicious, we polished off the whole pan. Thanks for this yummy recipe.
Vaishali
Hi Andi, so happy you guys liked it! 🙂