From Bland to Grand: Tips for Turning Bread into Dessert

That loaf lingering on your kitchen counter may seem destined for the birds. But before you relegate the remnants of last week's bakery run to feathered friends, consider this: with a little creativity, bread on its way out can become dessert on its way in.

We spoke with professional bakers and creative home cooks to uncover tips for magically transforming bread into cakes, puddings, and other sweet treats. From ingredient tricks to technique secrets, these pros share how to disguise stale breadiness and bring out dessert decadence. Read on for inspiration to see that forgotten loaf in a whole new light.

Crumbs to Puddings

For many, bread pudding ranks as the classic dessert adaptation. It conveniently utilizes leftover bread by layering cubed pieces with a creamy, eggy custard. Baked together, the bread soaks up the rich custard to become a sweet, spoonable treat.

While white bread or challah often serve as the base, experimenting earns encouragement from innovative bakers. Puddings welcome additions like dried, fresh, or glacéed fruits, nuts, spices, extracts, booze, chocolate—whatever flavors you fancy.

Beyond flavors, texture also deserves attention as day-old bread holds up best. Fresh bread absorbs too much moisture and disintegrates to mush. Allowing bread to stale slightly helps cubes retain shape and soak up just the right amount of custard.

For serving, a dusting of powdered sugar adds sweetness while a dollop of whipped cream contributes a cooling contrast.

French (Toast) Connection

Though not a traditional dessert, French toast crosses sweet territory with only a few tweaks. Standard versions soak bread in an egg and milk bath before frying to golden perfection. Creating French toast flavor profiles with more typically “dessert” spices and flavors bends the meal more decisively toward the sweet course.

A teaspoon of vanilla and a pinch of cinnamon to the basic batter infuses the lovely warmth you expect in cake-like desserts. Other aromatic spices like nutmeg, ginger, and cardamom also up the dessert ante.

Sweet substitutions in the custard pull French toast further from breakfast toward dessert as well. Bow suggests swapping full-fat cow’s milk for almond or coconut-based milk. Or puree fruits like bananas, strawberries, or mangos into the batter.

For grand finale decadence, finish off your French toast with your favorite ice cream flavors. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or drizzle with chocolate, caramel, or fruit sauces. Suddenly that breakfast standby becomes a sweet sensation.

Torte de Force

Contrary to instinct, bread stale enough to use as a doorstop Still has dessert potential. Case in point? This impressive layered torte transforms dried-out bread into an elegant supper club-worthy creation.

A popular method of making it layers ultra-thin slices of bread snatched from the compost heap with butter-rich puff pastry. After stacking it tall in a springform pan, the whole loaf gets doused with a sweet hazelnut cream.

The layers must be paper thin and even to achieve the right ratio, and if it is too thick you will lose the crisp contrast of pastry. A long serrated knife and steady hand help produce pristine slices for stacking success.

Once fully chilled, the torte gets unmolded, dusted with powdered sugar, and sliced like a cake.

Cake Walk

More traditional cake creations call for bread as a base too. Used as the foundation in place of flour, bread crumbs lend moisture and structure. Leaner sandwich-style loaves perform best, producing sturdy yet tender cakes similar in crumb to pound cake. Eggier, oil-enriched doughs like brioche and challah also work well for cakes with a lighter consistency.

Many bread cake recipes soak torn-up pieces of bread in milk or other liquids first. This helps soften cubes before mixing them into the batter and eliminates that stale bread taste. Spice boosters like vanilla, cinnamon, and almond extract also upgrade overall sweetness.

Veteran bakers advise mashing extra ripe bananas right into the batter to add lots of moisture so the bread turns incredibly soft and tender, with chocolate chips mixed in for that iconic banana-chocolate duo.

Whether going traditional with bread pudding or off-piste with a showstopping layered torte, one thing rings clear. Bread need not dead end once past its prime. With a spark of creativity and a dash of spirit, that lackluster loaf in your kitchen right now holds more potential than you might expect.