‘Ohana at Disney’s Polynesian Resort is famous for delicious noodles, tender meat, and — oh yeah — the amazing bread pudding!

It’s one of our truly favorite foods in all of Disney World for good reason — warm, soft bread pudding, cool vanilla ice cream and that sweet, buttery banana rum sauce! YUM. We’re gonna take you through the recipe step by step so you can enjoy this amazing creation without having to travel to Disney for it! (Although we must note: traveling to Disney is still highly encouraged, just as a general principle.)

First we think you should know a little about what you’re getting yourself into here! To make the whole bread pudding from scratch, you’ll actually need to make TWO recipes. (Sorry.)

The first is the Pineapple Breakfast Bread from breakfast at ‘Ohana then you turn THAT into bread pudding. You have to make that yummy sauce too(it’s REALLY all about the sauce on this one. After making this we were seriously tempted to stick a straw in the pitcher-full we were left with!!). The sauce can be a little tricky, but we’ll walk you through it! But first, some motivation. THIS is what we’re doing this for, friends. SO. WORTH. IT.

We’re making the iconic ‘Ohana Bread Pudding at home today! 🤤 pic.twitter.com/hGsQYN3sVk

— AJ Wolfe (@DisneyFoodBlog) June 21, 2021

To begin, we’ll need some bread! The very best kind to use is this recipe for the ‘Ohana breakfast bread, but if you’re in a rush and just need some bread pudding right now, you could use regular French bread (but just know it’s probably better — and more authentic — with the breakfast bread).

First let’s tackle that bread! It makes sense: what to do with stale bread left over from breakfast? Make bread pudding! (That’s kinda the point of bread pudding — to use up stale leftover bread!) If you weren’t planning to bake up bread when you started this epic quest, keep scrolling til you hit the bread pudding recipe below!

‘Ohana Pineapple Breakfast Bread:

Yield 1 – 9″ x 13″ cake pan

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 1 3/4 C. Water
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 2 Tbsp Shortening
• 1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt
• 1/3 C Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Instant Yeast
• 4 1/2 C. High Gluten Flour (Bread flour works perfect here. This is different from your standard All Purpose flour, so be sure to get the right one. AP flour won’t ruin the recipe, but the texture might be slightly softer.)

Coconut Mixture:

• 1 C. Crushed pineapple
• 1 C. Unsweetened coconut (make sure not to grab the sugary sweetened kind!)
• 1 C. Sugar
• 2 Tbsp Cornstarch

Making the Coconut Mixture

You’ll want to start with this mixture because it needs time to chill in the fridge! Grab all your ingredients, and let’s get started!

Start out by combining the pineapple and coconut in a bowl. Combine the sugar and cornstarch into a separate bowl.

Mix the sugar and cornstarch well. Make sure to really break up any lumps of cornstarch! Once cornstarch is heated, it basically turns into thick “food glue.” This will keep your filling from turning into a soupy wet mess and ruining your otherwise fabulous bread.

Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture into the pineapple and coconut mixture.

Mix it all together well!

Refrigerate this mixture for one hour before you use it in the bread!

Making the Bread

First, combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer bowl, in order of the ingredients list. Start with the egg yolk and water…

…and add in the shortening!

Add your kosher salt…

…sugar…

…and yeast!

Next up, dump in that high-gluten (AKA bread) flour.

Now that you’ve got all your ingredients in the bowl, attach it to the stand mixer and mix with the dough hook attachment until dough picks up on hook and the sides of the mixing bowl are clean.

Now leave the dough to rise until it’s doubled in size. If your oven has a “proof” setting, use it! This typically makes your oven just ever so slightly warm to help the dough rise.

Roll out your dough onto a floured surface until it is about half an inch thick. It was soft enough we did this easily with our hands — no rolling pin needed!

Next, spread the pineapple/coconut mixture over the top of the dough.

Make sure you leave some room around the edges of the dough! In hindsight, we’d do this like a rectangle, not a circle. You’ll see in a few steps why this doesn’t really matter what shape you choose though!.

Fold dough onto itself, capturing the pineapple and coconut mixture inside.

Now you should have a semi-circle (or rectangle) of dough filled with the pineapple coconut mixture! Like a giant calzone! 🙂

Cut dough into roughly equal pieces with a pizza cutter. Ours were about 2″ x 2″ but you’ll see in a sec why this isn’t a beauty contest… .

We say “roughly” and we mean it! That filling is wet and gloopy (that’s totes a word.) so it wants to slide around on the dough, making a wet mess. Brace for it. You’ll be OK!

Take your cut pieces and spread them evenly into a greased 9×13 inch pan! This is the point where we mentioned how you shape and cut it doesn’t matter too much — you want even dispersion of coco/pineapple goo throughout the final product and this process helps achieve that. As for putting it in the pan, we sat some up sideways, some down like a sandwich — just get em all spaced evenly in the pan. With time (and heat) all will be right in the world.

You should have something like this now! She ain’t pretty, but trust us. TRUST US!

Let your dough pieces rise in warm oven (110 degrees F) – until it rises about half way up the pan. Again that “proof” setting is your BFF. If you don’t have one, turn your oven on low for a minute or two, turn it off and feel inside. You should be able to touch inside without it being too hot.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Never just trust the bake time — WATCH it. Our oven isn’t your oven is not Disney World’s ovens! We usually set a timer for a bit before the low end of the time and start watching. Here, we checked about 15 minutes in. Ours took about 10 more minutes to get golden.

Let bread cool, and then cut it into pieces again! At this point, if you wanted ‘Ohana Breakfast Bread — CONGRATS! Whip up a glaze (slowly add milk into a cup of powdered sugar until a drizzly consistency) and drizzle on top before cutting. If ye dare continue on to Bread Pudding waters, get going matey.

We cut the pieces into about 2 inch chunks. In hindsight, we’d probably cut to 1 inch pieces to make a more even layer in the final bread pudding. Now you’ve got delicious pineapple coconut bread pieces that are ready for your bread pudding!

Making the Bread Pudding

First you need to gather your ingredients!

Ingredients
Bread Pudding
5 eggs
3 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg (fresh grated is best!)
1 1/2 cup sugar
8 cups french or ‘Ohana breakfast bread (what we just made! One batch made just enough.)

Start by putting the eggs, milk, salt, sugar, and nutmeg together in a bowl.

Mix them well and set the bowl aside for later.

Gather those 1-2 inch cut pieces of bread.

Place the pieces — spread out fairly evenly — onto a cookie sheet.

Put the pan into a 350 degree F oven and bake the bread until it’s lightly toasted. This should take about 15 minutes but don’t walk away! You don’t want to burn that bread you carefully made!

When it’s toasted, add bread into the mixture of eggs, milk, salt, sugar, and nutmeg we made earlier!

Mix pretty well so that all the bread is coated in the mixture. Put the mixture into a greased 10-inch cake pan…

…and bake at 325 degrees F for one hour. Again, watch for doneness!

Let it stand for about five minutes, and then serve it hot with ice cream and banana rum sauce!

Making the Banana Rum Sauce

This one’s the real kicker — it’s not ‘Ohana bread pudding without the delicious sauce!

Ingredients

4 oz sugar
4 oz brown sugar
4 oz corn syrup
4 oz unsalted butter (1 stick = 4oz)
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup spiced rum
1 cup banana slices (one banana’s worth was perfect)

Start by combining sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, butter in a large saucepan. Use a kitchen scale for accuracy with the weights here. (Think about it — what you get measuring one cup of dry goods won’t be exactly what the next 10 people will measure. 4oz is 4oz is 4oz. You’re basically making candy at this point so accuracy is KEY.)

Mix them together, and bring this mixture to a boil. Once boiling, add cream slowly.

Keep the mixture at a steady boil. Remember, you’re making candy here so it takes time. Be patient. Get you a candy thermometer and clip it on the side. You’re shooting for “Soft Ball.” 

Once it hits temp, add the spiced rum and flambe. Note that that rum will cause it to spit and sputter, so keep hands clear for a sec.

**OK, Fire Marshal DFB here. Flambe means literally taking a lighter and quickly hitting the sauce with a flame. The result is INVISIBLE FIRE. Seriously — the rum will light, but you might NOT see the flame. Don’t stick your face up to it looking for fire (bye-bye eyebrows!). BEFORE you attempt this, keep a big lid handy to extinguish the flame if it scares you. Light the sauce and step back. Give it a few seconds to cook. The flame can go out on its own or you can snuff it out with the lid.**

If you DON’T want to attempt this, don’t fret. You can add water instead of rum. Most grocery stores even sell rum flavored extract you can use instead of real alcohol. If you try that, start with a 1/2 tsp of extract and taste. You can always add more!

Once fire is gone and safety has returned to the land, kill the heat and move it somewhere safe.

Add vanilla (it’ll bubble up a bit again). Add sliced bananas.

Now grab a slice of your bread pudding, add a scoop of ice cream…

…and pour your delicious sauce over the top!

Can you feel the tropical vibes yet?? Guys, now we have a vat of this sauce in our fridge and fighting the urge to drink it with a straw (send help.)! Keep following DFB for recipes of more of your favorite Disney food!

Click here to See More Disney Recipes We’ve Made! 

 

Are you gonna try to make the ‘Ohana bread pudding? Let us know in the comments!