Learn how to make a vegan rendition of the infamous Jamaican bread pudding. A really simple yet delicious recipe made with bread, mixed fruit, spices and sweet coconut milk. Served with an optional rum sauce.

Bread pudding in an oven proof dish with rum sauce.

Hands down, Jamaican bread pudding is highly underrated, you won't really see it being served in many restaurants or food shacks.

The best way to get some is through an event or more commonly by going to someones house.

My immediate family don't really request bread pudding very often. They would easily choose sweet potato pudding or cornmeal pudding instead.

More often, I make bread pudding when we have guests and now that more of my guests are living alternative lifestyles i.e vegan, I adapt the pudding to cater to their needs.

Bread pudding is incredibly easy and not to mention fun to make. Depending on what your preferred texture is, you can get your children to help with squashing the bread when it's mixed together with the liquid.

If you have some leftover or more specifically stale bread, then don't throw it away, instead make use of it by making this bread pudding.

Your family and friends will love it and thank you for introducing them to it, they will be blown away with how foolproof my vegan rendition is.

No one will notice the omission of eggs, I promise you that!

Ingredients that are needed to make the bread pudding.

Recipe preparation

Just like many recipes, many Jamaican people have their own personal twist on bread pudding.

With some adding a little bit of this and that and so fourth. No one truly makes it the same and you may even notice that the appearance may differ.

Some look more like a pie, while others take on a more breaded, rustic topping.

My version is vegan, I use vegan, gluten bread that is store bought because I haven't managed to make a loaf recipe (yet).

I slice the bread into small squares and leave the crust on, some people like to trim off the edges but I don't mind them being part of the recipe and have had no complaints.

The bread is added to a large enough bowl to accommodate the chopped up bread.

In a separate bowl or a jug, whisk together the rest of the ingredients after blitzing it in the your blender.

You will notice that instead of using eggs to bind the pudding together I used ground flaxseed, when incorporated into the liquid it become slightly gelatinous and bind everything together.

The coconut milk gives it more flavour, you don't have to use coconut milk but I prefer to.

The next thing you need to do is pour the entire liquid contents over the bowl with the bread.

Here comes the fun part, if you have children you can get them involved in breaking down the bread.

The key here is to ensure the bread is fully saturated, I used a potato masher but you can grab some gloves and squash the bread using your hands.

I only breakdown about half to ¾ of the bread because I like to reserve some of the crusty pieces of the bread, for the topping.

Then I pour the sinto a 9x9 square oven proof baking dish I use my hands to arrange the bits of bread that wasn't broken down so that it forms part of the topping.

My bread pudding usually takes roughly over an hour to thoroughly bake, but as with most baked goods, baking time may vary, so keep that in mind.

The steps

Steps 1-4 Mixing the wet ingredients in a blender

Preheat the oven to 180C/356F.
Place the chopped bread in a large bowl and set aside.
Place the coconut milk, raw cane sugar, ground flaxseed, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice in a blender and blitz until smooth.
Transfer into a large jug or a bowl then mix together with the mixed fruit and rum essence.
Pour the liquid into the bowl with the bread.

Steps 5-8 mashing the bread with the liquid

Use either your hands (with gloves on) or a potato masher to breakdown the majority of the bread until it is fully saturated (I like to leave some pieces of bread whole and use it for the topping).
Pour the mixture into a square 9x9 oven proof baking dish and arrange the pudding so that chopped pieces of bread are on top.
Bake for roughly 60-70 minutes (mine took just under an hour to bake) or until the bread pudding is golden brown. If the pudding hasn't cooked after the given time, loosely cover with foil and check it is ready in 15 minute intervals.

Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool down before slicing/serving.
Meanwhile, prepare the optional sauce.
Add the coconut milk, dairy free butter and sugar in a medium sized saucepan and bring to the boil while stirring.
Once boiled, reduce the heat and simmer (while stirring) for 20 minutes until the sauce has darkened and thickened
Stir in the rum essence once the sauce is ready.

Notes and tips

Use whatever gluten free/vegan bread that you want.
Be sure to use ALL parts of the bread, let nothing go to waste!
I use rum essence but you can use actual Jamaican dark rum instead if you want to.
Any leftovers should be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
For best results, make sure to use a square oven proof dish i.e 8x8 or 9x9.
To re-heat, cover the oven proof dish with foil and heat in the oven for a few minutes.
You can use another type of plant based milk like Almond Milk, if you want to.
You can chop the bread up into giant chunks or small pieces.
When breaking down the bread, if you want your bread pudding to be smoother then you need to breakdown all of the bread.

Pouring the sauce onto the bread pudding.

More Jamaican desserts to try

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Jamaican Bread Pudding Recipe (Vegan and Gluten Free)

Recipe preparation

The steps

Notes and tips

More Jamaican desserts to try