Use Your Leftover Buns To Make Bread Pudding

Bread pudding is a classic for a reason. It's dependable, easy to make, cheap, and delicious — and once barbecue season rolls around, it's also a great way to use up leftover burger buns, creating the perfect marriage of resourcefulness, thriftiness, and tastiness! It's a super simple swap, and pretty much every type of burger or hot dog bun will work here — bread pudding is a wonderfully forgiving dessert. But brioche (though it might make for the worst bun for burgers) will stand head and shoulders above the rest. The slight eggy sweetness will work to really enhance the flavors of your bread pudding.

A basic recipe for bread pudding typically calls for stale white bread, but to swap in the buns, just cube them up and combine with beaten eggs and cinnamon. Mix together milk, sugar, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt, and pour it all over the buns, then bake. That's pretty much all there is to it!

If you want a little more bite, get the pudding into the oven as soon as you can — the less time those bread pieces soak in the liquid, the more solid they'll remain. If you prefer the texture of your bread pudding a little gooier, leave the buns to soak for a few minutes before baking. That'll allow the bread to absorb the liquid and really soften up, giving the final dessert a soft, almost cakey mouthfeel.

With just a few straightforward additions, you can give your bread pudding an exciting upgrade. One example is so easy it almost feels like cheating — bourbon. Yup, infusing caramel sauce with Kentucky's finest and pouring on top when the dessert is warm out of the oven will give it a sweet, woodsy nose. It's the perfect dessert at a barbecue (for the adults, that is), pairing well with other smoky dishes. This version will work best with brioche buns, but a potato bun offers a softer texture and similar sweetness. You could also splash bourbon into the custard soaking mixture.

You could also go for a Mediterranean take instead. Replace the common raisins in your pudding with dates (pitted and chopped) dispersed throughout; to finish, sprinkle the dish with sumac, a spice that can surprisingly transform your desserts. Using sesame or poppy seed buns here will bring a lovely nuttiness that will round out the dish. 

Finally, you could even take the savory route, turning your bread pudding into a gooey strata perfect for breakfast — somewhere between a casserole and savory French toast, a strata can be filled with just about anything! You could use ham and cheese, bacon and sausage, or even roasted veggies like peppers and mushrooms. We recommend a pretzel bun or kaiser roll here — both will give you a little more saltiness and a crispier crust on top. Whichever bun you choose to use, though, the result is sure to be delicious!