Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding Is In

No longer just a way for restaurants to use up stale rolls, bread pudding is appearing on dessert menus with a lot more creative love. Essentially just bread soaked in milk and eggs then baked so it turns into custard, it's easy to embellish and riff on depending on the type of bread you use (croissants, baguettes, stale cake, etc.) and the mix-ins you add.

Chocolate chip banana bread pudding with whiskey gelato is on the menu at Chicago's Uncommon Ground, and in Brooklyn, Buttermilk Channel is serving roast apple bread pudding, with warm butterscotch sauce and whipped cream. You'll find it on almost every menu in New Orleans, but arguably the most rad is the Krispy Kreme bread pudding at Boucherie.

Boucherie's chef Nathanial Zimet hails from North Carolina where the doughnut company is based. In his New Orleans restaurant, he combines 24 doughnuts, 3 pounds of pound cake, 1 1/2 quarts of cream, and 9 eggs, soaks it all for about 20 minutes, then bakes it. "It's, like, disgustingly awesome," he says. "We make pans of it, and the staff eats the little edges. One of the servers, she's really skinny, calls them her 'hips.' She eats them and says 'I'm just trying to get my hips!’”

Make one of CHOW.com's bread puddings:
Croissant and Armangac Bread Pudding
Bread Pudding with Orange Caramel Sauce