When we first thought about making an easy bread pudding recipe with our Soft-Baked biscotti instead of bread, we questioned ourselves.

Would the cookies be able to hold up in a baked custard? Is this twist on basic bread pudding something that people would want? Are we creating a delicious dessert monster??

The answer to all of the above is Y E S.

To our delight & surprise, this coffee cake bread pudding recipe is yummy. Like, insanely yummy. Like, need to hide this from us because we would eat the entire pan, yummy. The Cookie Bites were the perfect substitution for the traditional bread in this recipe, as they soaked up the custard nicely and still maintained their texture. Even more so, the dark chocolate chips that are in the Brown Sugar Coffee Cake Cookie Bites added a delicious pop of chocolate in every bite. The cinnamon sugar topping resembled the brown sugar topping on the soft-baked biscotti and every bite of this bread (cookie) pudding recipe made you feel like you were indulging in a real coffee cake. Although we made our easy bread pudding recipe with the Brown Sugar Coffee Cake Cookie Bites, we are also fantasizing about using Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Cookie Bites and adding pepitas instead of pecans in the topping, making it a delicious fall-themed dessert.

The most amazing part of this dessert is how incredibly easy it was to make! The only real assembly of this basic bread pudding recipe’s twist is to cover the Cookie Bites in a simple custard and top with the cinnamon sugar pecan topping and bake. It’s that easy! So easy, that it would make a perfect last-minute dessert to bring to your Thanksgiving feast.

Coffee Cake Bread Pudding Recipe, adapted from NYT recipe “Simple Bread Pudding”

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
2 Tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, more for greasing pan
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/6 cup sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
5 heaping cups (2 bags) Brown Sugar Coffee Cake Cookie Bites
3 eggs beaten

Topping:

½ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
½ cup toasted pecans, crushed

Method:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a small saucepan over low heat, warm milk, butter, vanilla, sugar, and salt. Continue cooking just until butter melts; cool
3. Combine topping ingredients in a small bowl
4. Butter a 9 x 9 baking dish and fill it with Cookie Bites
5. Add eggs to cooled milk mixture and whisk; pour mixture over bread. Sprinkle topping mixture evenly over top of cookies & custard
6. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until custard is set but still a little wobbly.

Variations We Love:

• Try Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Cookie Bites and pepitas (pumpkin seeds) in place of pecans in the topping.