Apple Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

This fall inspired Caramel Apple Bread Pudding recipe, prepared with Hawaiian rolls & caramel sauce, is easy to make & delicious for breakfast, brunch or dessert!

As a food blogger, my favorite times of the year are the first few weeks of a new season. For me, a new season means new produce to work with, new flavor profiles to incorporate into recipes and most importantly, new season-themed food photography props to play with!

For fall, it’s all about the apples, squash, pumpkins, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves! This year, I took a few of these fall-inspired ingredients and incorporated them into a delicious new bread pudding recipe.

For this recipe I used Hawaiian rolls to give the dish an extra dash of sweetness. I love the way the bread bakes up in this recipe. While most of the bread is soft and light, the top few pieces get a little crispy caramelization, which gives the dish a delicious balance of texture and flavor!

The drizzle of caramel over the recipe is like the cherry on top of a sundae, the icing on top of the cake, the whipped cream on top of the pie! Basically, it’s the ingredient that takes this bread pudding recipe from really delicious to over-the-top-amazing!

This bread pudding recipe is sweet, delicious and filled with all of the fall flavors you love!

Ingredients

• Hawaiian rolls – these rolls are softer that the bread typically used for making bread pudding, resulting in a lighter, fluffier and slightly sweeter bread pudding. If you want a more traditional, and denser bread pudding, feel free to cube up a loaf of brioche, french or challah bread.
• Eggs
• Milk – 2% milk, whole milk, soy milk or coconut milk will all work in this recipe. I’ve traditional use 2% milk, but have also tried the recipe with soy milk.
• Vanilla extract
• Ground nutmeg
• Ground cinnamon
• Apples – for this recipe, I recommend Honey Crisp or Pink Lady apples.
• Brown sugar
• All-purpose flour
• Butter – make sure to keep it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it, as you want the butter cold for this recipe.
• Caramel syrup – you will usually find caramel syrup or sauce in the grocery store on the end-cap of the ice cream aisle, along with other ice cream toppings like hot fudge and sprinkles. You can also order it online using the link provided, or use this homemade caramel sauce recipe to make your own.

Find all of the ingredient amounts and an instructional video at the bottom of this post in the recipe card.

Step by step instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Slice the Hawaiian rolls into cubes, then place the bread cubes in a 9” x 13” baking dish, coated with cooking spray.

Whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon together in a medium-size bowl.

Pour the egg mixture over the Hawaiian sweet rolls.

Toss the bread and mixture together.

Top with diced apples.

Stir the apples into the bread pudding.

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar and flour, fold in the cold butter and mix until a crumble forms.

Sprinkle the brown sugar crumble over the bread pudding.

Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven, drizzle the caramel syrup on top of the bread pudding and place back in the oven for 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

How to serve it

This caramel apple bread pudding recipe is most commonly served as dessert, but I’ve also served it as a decadent holiday brunch at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I always recommend serving it warm. If you have leftover bread pudding, heat it up in the microwave for 60 seconds before serving.

If serving the bread pudding for dessert, you could also add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. And maybe even an extra drizzle of caramel syrup!

At Christmas, feel free to mix in a cup of fresh cranberries with the apples to give this fall dish a more winter feel! The cranberries will bake up and start to burst in the bread pudding for a delicious tart addition to the dish.

If serving this recipe for brunch, you could even swap out the caramel sauce for maple syrup, to give it more of a “breakfast flavor”.

Frequently asked questions

• Should the bread pudding be baked covered or uncovered? It should be baked uncovered to get the crispy, sweet caramelization on top.
• How long will leftovers last in the fridge? In my house, about one day, because I will eat them all! But if you can keep them around longer, the leftovers will stay good for up to 5 days. You always want to store leftover bread pudding in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I recommend heating up the leftovers in the microwave for 1 minute.
• Can you freeze homemade bread pudding? I do not recommend freezing this dish, as the textures will not be the same after it’s frozen and reheated.

More caramel recipes

For more delicious caramel recipes, check out these 5 favorites!

1. Salted Caramel Cinnamon Rolls
2. Pumpkin Cookie Cups with Salted Caramel Filling
3. Salted Caramel Cashew Cookies
4. No Churn Salted Caramel Ice Cream
5. Salted Caramel Pecan Baked Brie

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