Charleston’s Old Fashioned Bread Pudding Recipe: A Southern Classic

This Charleston bread pudding recipe is comfort food at its finest. An easy dessert that’s served warm with caramel sauce, you’ll want to make this Southern bread pudding constantly.

Add a big scoop of ice cream or whipped cream (or both—I’m not judging!), and you’ve got the best Southern bread pudding recipe that I’ve ever tried.

Keep reading to discover the history of this recipe and how to make it for yourself. It uses simple pantry staples (and no raisins) to create a decadent and memorable dessert perfect for your next get-together, holiday meal, or progressive dinner.

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Updated 5/2022 | Written 4/2017

The History behind Old Fashioned Charleston Bread Pudding

In spring of 2017, I attended the Historic Hotels of America luncheon at the Francis Marion Hotel here in Charleston, South Carolina.

I've worked with the organization many times before, and I'm always excited to get out and meet other people who love history and travel.

In between several speed networking sessions, Chef Simon Andrews brought out a creative three course menu that took several classic Southern dishes and turned them on their heads.

Even though I was stuffed to the point of needing to be rolled back to my car, I knew I had to take a few bites of the dessert when it came out in all of its buttery, carby, ice creamy goodness.

I'd never had old fashioned bread pudding before, and I was a little unsure of how stale bread could be reworked into a dessert. I shouldn't have been worried since the dish was indulgent in all of the best ways.

Don't you love that bowl?! It's giant, which makes it the perfect size for a dessert like this.

Buy the mug here.

What made the dessert even better was the fact that Chef Andrews had found it on one of the hotel's original menus, making this one of the classic Charleston recipes.

As we ate our Southern bread pudding, Chef Andrews explained how he’d discovered the Charleston bread pudding recipe and why it was such a hit both in its original heyday and now.

With a history stretching back to 1924, the Francis Marion Hotel has been one of the cornerstones of Charleston's hospitality industry long before the rest of the world discovered my sleepy hometown.

I took a photocopy of the original menu home with me since I can't resist something with that kind of history.

It was fun to see that the menu from 1924 included a 3 course meal (including your choice of tea, coffee, or lemonade) for a whopping $1.50.

If you weren't in the mood for the extravagantly priced filet mignon, you could spring for the chicken, short ribs, or the roast pork loin for only $0.85.

Charleston’s bread pudding recipe is a bit different than traditional bread and butter puddings, but this is one instance where change is for the better.

My husband deemed it the best version he'd ever had.

We’ve pulled out this recipe again and again, and it’s always a hit!

Charleston’s Old Fashioned Bread Pudding Recipe without Raisins

Ingredients

12 cups loosely packed cubed white bread (Challah, Brioche, or French)

1 qt. half and half

6 eggs beaten.

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar (packed)

2 TB butter, melted

2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup pecans, chopped + 1 cup, chopped, for topping

Caramel sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees.

2. Whisk together half and half, eggs, brown sugar, white sugar, butter, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, and salt.

3. Add bread and pecans to mixture, stir to combine. Continue to stir every 10 minutes for 30 minutes.

4. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes uncovered. Check to ensure that the dessert is cooking evenly.

5. Bake an additional 15 minutes to brown top. The pudding is done when top is brown and springy, and the center is baked through.

6. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

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Notes:

• I used fresh bread and it worked just fine. You could also use stale bread if you've got a loaf hanging around.

• 12 cups of bread seems like a lot, but the cubes take up a lot of room in the measuring cup. Ensure you have all of the stated bread in your mixture or the end result won’t be sturdy enough to hold up the eggs and ice cream.

• We’ve always served store bought caramel sauce with this recipe as its been the easiest. However, you can always make homemade caramel sauce if you have some time!

• If you’ve got a guest who can’t have nuts, you can remove the pecans from this recipe. If anyone who CAN have nuts, I do think that the pecans add some extra flavor, though walnuts could be subbed in as well.

Did you try this Charleston bread pudding recipe?

Have you ever made old fashioned Southern bread pudding?  

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