Is Bread Pudding Vegan? Here’s What You Need To Know
Is bread pudding vegan? If you’re new to veganism, you might be wondering the same thing. Let’s take a closer look at this delicious dessert to see if it’s suitable for such a diet.
Bread pudding is a popular dessert with an interesting main ingredient- stale bread! It was first created in the 11th century in England and back then, according to Taste Cooking, it consisted of soaked and squeeze-dried stale bread mixed with sugar and spices. Nowadays, recipes typically include dried fruit and other rich ingredients.
Bread pudding vs. bread and butter pudding
What’s the difference between bread pudding and bread and butter pudding, I hear you ask? Although they’re both British desserts made from bread, they are slightly different.
Bread pudding is more of a cake-like dessert, packed with dried fruit, peel, and spices. It can be cut into portable slices easier. When making bread pudding, you break the bread into small pieces and incorporate it into the rest of the ingredients.
Bread and butter pudding, on the other hand, is made with buttered bread and custard, which bread pudding is not. If you take a look at the BBC Good Food recipe image of bread pudding and the image of bread and butter pudding, you’ll easily be able to see the difference.
Ingredients
Let’s take a closer look at the ingredients of BBC Good Food’s bread pudding recipe, which is consistent with a ‘typical’ British recipe.
- Bread. Of course, you can’t have bread pudding without bread! In my experience, almost all bread is vegan, with the exception of gluten-free breads which are sometimes made with eggs.
- Dried fruit. Dried fruits are simply dehydrated fruits and are almost always suitable for vegans.
- Mixed peel. Mixed peel is a mixture of candied lemon and orange peels. It is vegan-friendly in most cases unless honey is used.
- Mixed spice. All spices are plant-based and therefore suitable for such a diet.
- Milk. Milk comes from cows and is not vegan. This can be substituted for plant-based milk at a ratio of 1:1.
- Eggs. Eggs are another ingredient that makes this dessert unsuitable for vegans. Eggs can be a bit trickier to replace in desserts but you can read my egg substitutes post for some guidance.
- Sugar. Sugar produced in the UK is vegan but other countries sometimes use bone char for processing. If you’re outside of the UK, use organic sugar which is always vegan.
- Lemon. Lemon is a fruit and is vegan-friendly.
- Butter. Butter is a milk product but it can be easily substituted at a ratio of 1:1 with dairy-free butter. I recommend using the blocky type (rather than the spreads) for the best results.
Is bread pudding vegan?
No, bread pudding is not vegan because it contains milk, butter, and eggs. Bread and butter pudding isn’t vegan either because it also contains these ingredients.
However, it is possible to make your own vegan version by using dairy and egg-free substitutes. For example, you could use soy milk, dairy-free butter, and an egg substitute such as vegan buttermilk or flax eggs. There are also some vegan bread pudding recipes online that you can try at your convenience.
Is bread pudding gluten-free?
No, breading pudding is not gluten-free because it’s made with wheat bread. You could use a gluten-free bread to make it but be aware that many of these contain eggs or egg powder. A good vegan and gluten-free bread I recommend is Schar.
Summary
Bread pudding is not vegan because it contains milk products and eggs. It is possible to make your own vegan version at home using egg and dairy substitutes.
