Do you ever have an issue with overly dry baked goods? Maybe you baked a batch too long and it tastes good but it’s too crumbly? Or do you have an older batch of muffins or quick bread that you can’t bear to toss out?

I just may have a tasty solution for you!

At times gluten free baking seems to be more like voo-doo science than anything else. The air could be too humid or too dry outside and your recipe doesn’t rise correctly. It can be tricky. It could be that you’re cooking only for yourself and a dozen muffins simply can’t be consumed without them going to waste? (This is not the case with me,  I am “an eater” as my husband says, but I know some people struggle with baked goods becoming stale too quick).

I can’t stand throwing out expensive ingredients just because a recipe fails or you may so many batches trying to reach a better result that you are left with 4 dozen muffins or donuts 🙂 Mmmm…what to do?

Make some BREAD PUDDING!

While trying to come up with my black and white hazelnut donuts, I wound up with two batches, one being too dry for my taste. I was thinking about ways to use up the crumbs and pieces and “bread pudding” kept coming to mind.

It worked beautifully! I made both a egg version as well as a vegan version with scrumptious results. The vegan version was slightly more moist, but that may have something to do with the fact I was running low on almond milk…

You don’t have to have dry donuts hanging around to try this though – any dry and/or near-stale muffins or quick breads would all be delicious here! You might have to tweak the amount of sweetener depending on the sweetness of the baked good you are using, but I am pretty sure a variation on this would work and be pretty flexible.

I actually preferred the vegan version of this pudding over it’s egg-included counterpart. It was incredibly moist, which might be due to the fact that I was running low on non-dairy milk and used 3 Tbsp less in the egg version but both versions were very delicious! Pictured is the vegan version…I was impatient and ate the non-vegan version that night for dessert. It was too dark to take a photo so I had to patiently sit on my hands and not eat the vegan version until the next day so I could take some pictures 🙂

Egg-Free Vegan Bread Pudding for One

Ingredients

For pudding
1 donut (I used one of my B&W hazelnut donuts), cubed or 1 cup of leftover muffin/quick bread/cake*, crumbled
1/2 cup almond milk or other non-dairy milk
1 1/2 Tbsp chopped walnuts (or other nut)
1/2 tsp coconut oil or Earth balance
3 shakes of ground cinnamon (1/8 tsp)
1-2 tsp palm/coconut sugar or a drizzle of agave, optional depending on how sweet you want
Optional: 1-2 Tbsp of dried or fresh fruit would also be delicious here as well (raisins, berries, etc) if desired

For glaze
2 Tbsp plain coconut milk or yogurt
a few drops of pure vanilla extract
drizzle of agave or maple syrup

chopped nuts and ground cinnamon for garnish, optional

Directions

1. In a small mixing bowl, combine all pudding ingredients and let sit for 30 minutes to let donut/muffin/quick bread absorb the liquid ingredients.
2. Preheat oven to 350F and grease a small ramekin with coconut oil or Earth Balance.
3. Add soaked mixture into prepared ramekin and baked uncovered for 45-50 minutes until cooked through (will still be soft though). Let cool for a few minutes while preparing glaze. In a bowl, mix together glaze ingredients and spoon glaze over bread pudding and serve!

Bread Pudding for One

Ingredients

For pudding
1 donut (I used one of my B&W hazelnut donuts), cubed or 1 cup of leftover muffin/quick bread/cake*, crumbled
1/3 cup almond milk or other non-dairy milk
1 egg white, whisked
1 1/2 Tbsp chopped walnuts (or other nut)
1/2 tsp coconut oil or Earth balance
3 shakes of ground cinnamon (1/8 tsp)
1-2 tsp palm/coconut sugar or a drizzle of agave, optional depending on how sweet you want
Optional: 1-2 Tbsp of dried or fresh fruit would also be delicious here as well (raisins, berries, etc) if desired

For protein glaze
2 Tbsp plain Greek yogurt
1 Tbsp vanilla protein powder
drizzle of honey, maple syrup or agave, optional if protein powder is unsweetened

chopped nuts and ground cinnamon for garnish, optional

Directions

1. In a small mixing bowl, combine all pudding ingredients and let sit for 30 minutes to let donut/muffin/quick bread absorb the liquid ingredients.
2. Preheat oven to 350F and grease a small ramekin with coconut oil or Earth Balance.
3. Add soaked mixture into prepared ramekin and baked uncovered for 40-45 minutes until cooked through. Let cool for a few minutes while preparing glaze. In a bowl, mix together glaze ingredients and spoon glaze over bread pudding and serve!

*If your leftover donut/muffin/cake/quick bread is overly moist, this may not work. You can always dry out the baked good like you could a typical bread pudding (as long as the texture isn’t already gummy) by cubing the item and placing it in an oven for 15-20 minutes or so until dried out.