Bread Pudding with Butter Rum Sauce

This is a southern dessert, elevated significantly with a decadent butter rum sauce.

Ingredients

For the bread pudding:

• 1 loaf of day-old bread (about 1 lb) cut into small cubes
• 4 large eggs
• 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup (1 stick) salted butter, melted & slightly cooled
• ⅓ cup golden raisins
• 1 tablespoon rum extract (or vanilla extract)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¾ cup chopped pecans

For the butter rum sauce:

• ½ cup (1 stick) salted butter
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• ½ cup heavy whipping cream
• ¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
• ¼ cup rum (Myers’s dark rum is good)

Directions

1. Cut or tear the bread into 1-inch pieces in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, make a custard, whisking together the eggs, evaporated milk, heavy cream, sugar, melted butter, raisins, rum extract/vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, and nutmeg. The mixture should be homogenous.
3. Pour the custard over the bread pieces and mix gently until the bread is saturated. Set aside to rest.
4. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
5. Once it is preheated, empty the bread mixture into a greased 9×13 baking dish.
6. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until the custard is set and the edges of things are golden brown.
7. After the custard is done, set it aside to cool.
8. While it cools, in a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream, and brown sugar. Stir briefly to combine, and occasionally until the butter is melted. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a gentle boil, then remove from the heat. Stir in rum until fully incorporated.
9. Pour half of the hot butter rum sauce over the bread pudding, and let it rest for 30 minutes. Reserve the rest of the sauce in a microwave safe container for serving.
10. To serve, slice the bread pudding into wedges and serve room temperature or warm, with hot rum sauce.

Notes

• Original recipe by Quin Liburd
• Plus-up toppings:
  • chopped pecans
  • vanilla ice cream
  • whipped cream
• Bread choice matters here - best is day-old brioche. Old ginger snap cookies can be good, italian bread would be okay. Texas toast, milk bread, anything a little firm and maybe a little sweet should be fine. Fresh bread gets a little goopy but you could dehydrate it a bit in the oven first.