Hubnik comes from the foothills of the Czech Krkonose Mountains. It is a very tasty bread pudding made with dried mushrooms. Since my dad's family is from this area, we've been making mushroom pudding every Christmas for years. Let's see the recipe!
➜ What can you expect
Hubník is an old Czech savory dish made of dried mushrooms; the other main ingredients are white bread soaked in milk, eggs, and spices. Some hubnik recipes include chopped bacon. The mushroom pudding is baked in the oven until golden brown and served as a main dish.
Mushroom pudding is traditionally served in the Krkonose area as a festive Christmas dish.
FUN FACT: In the Krkonose region, in addition to the savory hubnik, people also bake a sweet version with prunes, raisins, and nuts!
MY TIP: From the Krkonose region comes another great regional specialty, sourdough soup, called kyselo in the Czech Republic.
➜ Ingredients to make hubnik
To prepare savory bread pudding from scratch, you need:
- Dried wild mushrooms; ideally a mixture of European dried mushrooms (available, for example on Amazon.com)
- Stale white bread; such as French baguette, Czech rohliky, veka, or housky rolls, 2-3 days old. Cut the bread into rough cubes.
- Whole milk; to soak the bread. Some people are used to adding heavy cream to the pudding, but whole milk is perfectly sufficient.
- Eggs; to encourage good pudding consistency
- Slab pork bacon; cut it into small cubes. In the Czech Republic, so-called English bacon (anglicka slanina) is used, which is not too dry, but rather juicy with visible lean meat content. It is made from pork belly.
- Fresh garlic; there is quite a lot of it in the mushroom pudding, garlic adds a great flavor.
- Semolina; coarse, gritty flour which serves as a binding agent in the hubnik pudding. In the Czech Republic, we use "krupicka", which is the most likely equivalent to semolina flour. Other nice options are Farina or Cream of Wheat.
- Salt and ground black pepper; to taste
Next, prepare a teaspoon of fat (butter, lard, Crisco, or other solid fat) and a tablespoon of plain breadcrumbs to grease and dust the baking dish in which the pudding will be baked.
Equipment: A smaller square baking dish measuring about 8x12 inches (20x30 cm) with higher rims.
✅ You’ll find the exact amount of ingredients below in the recipe card, which you can also print out.
➜ How to make mushroom bread pudding
DO THIS FIRST: Peel and press or mash garlic cloves. Cut the white bread into rough cubes. Dice the bacon finely.
STEP 1: Pour about two cups of water into a pot and throw in the dried mushroom mixture. Bring to a boil over high heat on the stovetop. Reduce the heat and boil gently for 10 minutes.
STEP 2: Remove the cooked mushrooms with a slotted spoon or sieve, drain, and cut them into smaller pieces. Leave the mushroom broth aside.
STEP 3: Meanwhile, place the bread cubes in a large bowl, pour in the milk, and stir until the milk is absorbed.
STEP 4: Add diced bacon, eggs, and pressed garlic to the soaked bread. Season with salt and pepper. Stir well.
STEP 5: Pour in enough mushroom broth to make a semi-dense mixture. Be careful; if you add too much liquid, the resulting bread pudding gets watery. Add the semolina and stir until combined.
STEP 6: Grease a baking dish and dust it with breadcrumbs. That way, the mushroom pudding will not stick during baking to the bottom or sides and will be easy to remove after cooking. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish, and smooth the surface.
STEP 7: Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Bake the hubnik pudding for about 30 minutes, until the surface turns golden.
➜ Serving
If you're asking whether this bread pudding should be eaten warm or cold, the answer is that both are possible! In our family, we prefer to serve it warm, either right out of the oven or warmed up in a pan with butter (see reheating instructions later on).
Serve when freshly baked: Serve the mushroom bread pudding warm, cut into slices or wide strips. We serve it as a lighter main dish.
Some people add a slice of fresh bread or potatoes boiled in their skins, then peeled and topped with melted butter.
Reheating: My dad always said that this mushroom pudding tastes better the next day. To reheat, melt unsalted butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Place the sliced pudding in the pan and fry on both sides.
Mushroom pudding reheated in this way tastes absolutely wonderful!
➜ Storage
At room temperature: Let the dish cool completely, then cover it with a clean tea towel and keep it cool. It will last about three days.
In the fridge: Cut the hubnik into slices, store in a resealable container, and refrigerate for up to 5 days.
In the freezer: This mushroom bread pudding freezes perfectly. Cut it into slices and store it placed in an airtight container in the freezer. Here the dish will keep for at least three months.
➜ Useful tips
- If you remember, soak the mushrooms in cold water the day before. Then just bring them to a boil and simmer them for a minute or two.
- There are several recipes for Czech mushroom pudding, so I do not claim this one to be the only original one. Sometimes, finely chopped onion, chopped fresh parsley, dried marjoram, and crushed caraway seeds (learn, how to grind spices by hand) are added, or the bacon is left out.
- When baking, the pudding in the baking dish will puff up. Once you remove it from the oven and let it cool, it will flatten again. Don't be alarmed; it's normal!
More Czech mushroom recipes:
- Scrambled eggs with mushrooms (Smaženice)
- Kulajda soup
- Bramboracka potato soup
- Spicy oyster mushroom soup
- Mushroom barley casserole (Houbový Kuba)
Tried this recipe?
Leave a review down in the comments! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Mushroom Bread Pudding (Czech hubník)
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk (240 ml)
- 4 cups cubed stale white bread such as French baguettes
- 4 ounces pork bacon slab (110 g)
- 2 full hands dried mushrooms
- 4 eggs
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 Tablespoons semolina or Farina / Cream of Wheat
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper ground
To grease the baking dish:
- 1 teaspoon fat to grease the dish
- 1 Tablespoon breadcrumbs to dust the dish
Instructions
- DO THIS FIRST: Peel and press or mash garlic cloves. Dice the bacon finely.
- Pour about two cups of water into a pot and throw in the dried mushroom mixture. Bring to a boil over high heat on the stovetop. Reduce the heat and boil gently for 10 minutes.
- Remove the cooked mushrooms with a slotted spoon or sieve, drain, and cut them into smaller pieces. Leave the mushroom broth aside.
- Meanwhile, place the bread cubes in a large bowl, pour in the milk, and stir until the milk is absorbed.
- Add diced bacon, eggs, and pressed garlic to the soaked bread. Season with salt and pepper. Stir well.
- Pour in enough mushroom broth to make a semi-dense mixture. Be careful; if you add too much liquid, the resulting bread pudding gets watery. Add the semolina and stir until combined.
- Grease a baking dish and dust it with breadcrumbs. That way, the mushroom pudding will not stick during baking to the bottom or sides and will be easy to remove after cooking. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish, and smooth the surface.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Bake the hubnik pudding for about 30 minutes, until the surface turns golden.
Notes
- Makes about 10 portions/slices.
- SERVING: Serve the mushroom bread pudding warm, cut into slices or wide strips. We serve it as a lighter main dish. Some people add a slice of fresh bread or potatoes boiled in their skins, then peeled and topped with melted butter.
- Reheating: My dad always said that this mushroom pudding tastes better the next day. To reheat, melt unsalted butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Place the sliced pudding in the pan and fry on both sides.
- When baking, the pudding in the baking dish will puff up. Once you remove it from the oven and let it cool, it will flatten again. Don't be alarmed; it's normal!
DISCLAIMER: Because I come from Central Europe, my recipes are based on metric units such as grams or milliliters. Check out how I convert metric units to the U.S. system:
Conversion chart
Mary
Hello. what can I use instead of semolina? Could I use flour or corneal or fine grits??
Petra Kupská
Hi Mary, unfortunately, I have no experience with cornmeal for this recipe. In the ingredient list, I noted that Cream of Wheat can be used in place of semolina. Alternatively, I can imagine Wondra flour (if you're based in the US), or even regular all-purpose flour, but you would have to sift it through a fine sieve into the mushroom mixture to prevent lumps from forming.
Wiliam Milan Uhlarik
Dear Petra, I am for going to give you a pre-emptive four stars for this recipe because I was aware this was one of the regional dishes of our cuisine but never actually ate it. I have eaten all of its ingredients and love their taste used to make many other types of our dishes. However, I have to say it kind of reminds me a little of the "nadivka" my mother and grandmother used to make to stuff duck, goose, turkey, et al. If they happened to have more left after stuffing the main cavity and neck, they would bake it separately in a well-greased pan covered with foil. My sestranica who was born and raised in Wisconsin with large of population of Czechoslovaks who settled there will be visiting me here in Texas next month. I think I will make this recipe for our Sunday brunch after Mass so the both of us can try it. I'll let you know how it tasted. As usual, thank you very much for sharing your recipes and promoting and keeping alive our culinary heritage, especially, for us here in the USA. Not sure if you knew, but there were four major waves of immigration of us to the USA: early 1600's after the Battle of White Mountain, 1800's, 1900's, and 20th century after WW2 when Gottwald and the Communists seized power and many of us fled. As young kids growing up in Chicago, on Saturdays a number of us attended Československá škola at our local parishes where we were taught and read about our history, language, and culture. Even as a young adult throughout the year on occasion I would attend classes and events sponsored by the Czechoslovak Society of America which was a big organization at that time. Unfortunately, that is now a fond memory of the distant past for people my age. We have many people here all over the USA with Czechoslovak surnames who are clueless about their heritage or maybe have some remnants of our culture in them. So, what you are doing to preserver our culture here in the USA is fantastic!
Petra Kupská
Ahoj Milan, thank you very much again for your kind words. You are right; this recipe is similar to "nadivka" stuffing. Either for stuffing poultry or made with spring herbs at Easter and baked separately in the oven, when it is known by many as "sekanina."
As for the migration waves of Czechs and Slovaks to the USA, I find that a very interesting topic. Before I started writing a blog with Czech recipes, I was not very aware of these moments in our history. Gradually, my readers started to write to me about their lives. How they, or, more often, their parents or grandparents, came to the United States. Most of my blog's readers are second- and third-generation Czechs, whose ancestors immigrated to the USA at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. There are also Czechoslovaks who emigrated from former Czechoslovakia as a result of communist regime repression. I would venture to say that these people are very interested in Czech food, culture, and traditions! Their stories and recollections of the Czech lands from the time when they or their ancestors left their homeland are very enriching for me. Thank you, Milan, too, for bringing me closer to the events that occurred when you began the next stage of your life in a new country!
Joyce Dudder
Bravo to you and your son!!!! What a great team! His English is very good. I'm sure you are proud! I am Polish (3 of 4 grandparents were Polish-Safranski, Kujava, etc). I love Eastern European dishes and dumplings of any nationality, soups, bread pudding and mushrooms. I look forward to trying this dish and have saved it in my online recipe folder. Now I will go back and see what other recipes I may want to try! PS. Are quince grown in your country? I call them Pears on Steroids due to their looks. They are not edible raw but used like apples in jams, marmalade, or pies. They have a wonderful fragrance. Blessings to you and your son!
Anicka Cooklikeczechs.com
Zdravim, Joyce, thank you so much for your comment and kind words, I really appreciate them! Please let me know how they turn out after - fingers crossed! And yes, pears on steroids (hilarious!) are indeed grown here 🙂 Greetings from the Czech Republic!