Pressure Cooker Bread Pudding

Years ago I taught a unit on pressure cooking to students at Abilene High School. That was back in the days when pressure cookers were heavy duty pans that set on the burner of a stove and people were often afraid they’d blow up.

Before I taught that unit for the first time, I experimented with a pressure cooker at home. One of the first recipes I ever tried was one for bread pudding—the first time Barry or I had ever tasted this dessert . . . and we liked it.

Just recently I purchased a new fangled electric pressure cooker and decided to again give bread pudding a try. OH MY GOSH . . . it was delicious. Here’s the slightly update recipe adapted for an electric pressure cooker.

This makes a wonderful dessert but could also be eaten for breakfast.

Cubed & toasted bread.

Pressure Cooker Bread Pudding

4 tablespoons butter, melted

½ cup lightly packed brown sugar

3 cups whole milk (or use almond milk)

3 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

Dried fruit soaking in liquor.

7 ( ¾”) thick slices bread (I used homemade wheat berry bread), cubed and toasted (toast on a rimmed cookie sheet in 350º oven for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Cool bread before continuing with recipe.)

½ cup dried fruit (I used a combination of raisins, craisins & dried cherries that I let soak in a blackberry liquor to plump; or use any other liquor of your choice or even just water)

¼ to ⅓ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1. In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.
   
2. Mix in cubed bread and raisins. Let rest 20 minutes until the bread absorbs the milk, stirring occasionally.

   

   Bread just added to milk mixture.
3. Add chopped nuts and pour bread pudding into a buttered 1 ½-quart glass or metal baking dish. (Be sure it fits in your pressure cooking pot.) 
   
4. Cover dish with foil. Prepare a foil sling for lifting the dish out of the pressure cooking pot by taking an 18” strip of foil and folding it lengthwise twice.
   
5. Pour 1 ½ cups water into the pressure cooking pot and place the trivet in the bottom. Center the dish on the foil strip and lower it into the pressure cooker.
6. Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and set the timer for 20 minutes. When beep sounds, turn off pressure cooker, and do a quick pressure release to release the pressure. When valve drops carefully remove lid.
7. Remove dish from pressure cooking pot. If desired, put dish in preheated 350° oven for 5 to 10 minutes to crisp up the top.
   
   
   

   

   We added a dollop of Greek God's Honey Vanilla Yogurt to each serving of bread pudding. 

Recipe without photos . . .

Pressure Cooker Bread Pudding 

4 tablespoons butter, melted 

½ cup lightly packed brown sugar

3 cups whole milk (or use almond milk)

3 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

7 ( ¾”) thick slices bread (I used homemade wheat berry bread), cubed and toasted (toast on a rimmed cookie sheet in 350º oven for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Cool bread before continuing with recipe.) 

½ cup dried fruit (I used a combination of raisins, craisins & dried cherries that I let soak in a blackberry liquor to plump; or use any other liquor of your choice or even just water)

¼ to ⅓ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1. In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.
2. Mix in cubed bread and raisins. Let rest 20 minutes until the bread absorbs the milk, stirring occasionally.
3. Add chopped nuts and pour bread pudding into a buttered 1 ½-quart glass or metal baking dish. (Be sure it fits in your pressure cooking pot.)
4.  Cover dish with foil. Prepare a foil sling for lifting the dish out of the pressure cooking pot by taking an 18” strip of foil and folding it lengthwise twice.
5. Pour 1 ½ cups water into the pressure cooking pot and place the trivet in the bottom. Center the dish on the foil strip and lower it into the pressure cooker.
6. Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and set the timer for 20 minutes. When beep sounds, turn off pressure cooker, and do a quick pressure release to release the pressure. When valve drops carefully remove lid.
7. Remove dish from pressure cooking pot. If desired, put dish in preheated 350° oven for 5 to 10 minutes to crisp up the top.