Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce

Making bread pudding is one of my favorite tricks for transforming leftover carbs into something glorious. At its simplest, you can cut various types of bread—including a baguette, boule or fluffy brioche—into cubes, dry them out a touch before soaking them in a lush custard, and then bake the casserole until it’s just set. Adding spices, dried fruit and a rich sauce brings the dessert to the next level.

You can serve bread pudding with rum sauce for brunch in place of its cousin, French toast, but it also makes a great addition to a holiday dessert spread. This recipe would not be out of place on your Thanksgiving or Christmas table.

Ingredients for Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce

• Raisins: Flame raisins are plumper than Thompson raisins; you can often find them in bulk bins at the grocery store. However, this bread pudding recipe will work well with any type of raisins, sultanas or currants, or even dried cranberries.
• Dark rum: Dark rum has notes of brown sugar, stone fruit and nuts, which are beautiful matches for a bread pudding dessert. You don’t have to get a super pricey bottle, but it’s always good to cook with rum you’d be happy to drink.
• Bread: Delicate, soft breads enriched with milk or butter are a natural fit (think challah or brioche), and crusty loaves have their own appeal, but don’t let that stop you from making bread pudding with whatever you have on hand or can find at the grocery store.
• Eggs: Make ’em Grade A and large. Eggs from pastured chickens are some of the best eggs to buy, as they’ll give your custard a golden glow.
• Evaporated milk: Evaporated milk is richer than regular milk with a lower water content, but you could also make do with whole milk or half-and-half.
• Whipping cream: Cream lends richness to the custard; you can use heavy cream and whipping cream interchangeably here.
• Sugars: You’ll use granulated sugar and brown sugar in your custard, and brown sugar in the sauce. I like dark brown sugar, as it adds deeper molasses notes than light brown sugar.
• Butter: You can use either unsalted or salted butter. To enhance the bread pudding even more, brown the butter before using it.
• Cinnamon: Although optional, the warmth and sweetness of cinnamon is a beautiful inclusion in your bread pudding.
• Vanilla extract: Make sure you’ve got honest-to-goodness vanilla extract in your cupboard, as imitation vanilla doesn’t have the same depth or complexity. You can also use homemade vanilla extract.
• Salt: Salt is needed to balance out the gooey sweetness of the sauce, so don’t leave it out!

Directions

Step 1: Get set up

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In a small saucepan over low heat, cook the raisins in the rum until they’re plump, 12 to 15 minutes. Set them aside.

Editor’s Tip: Stir the raisins once or twice to get them all to rehydrate evenly.

Step 2: Prep the pudding

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Place the cubed bread in a greased 13×9-inch baking pan and sprinkle the raisins over top. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, sugar, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon if desired, vanilla extract and salt.

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Slowly pour the mixture over the cubed bread. Cover and refrigerate the pan for at least one to two hours or until bread softens.

Step 3: Bake the pudding

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Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the bread pudding, uncovered, for 60 to 65 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool.

Editor’s Tip: Remove the bread pudding from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before you want to bake it. I like to use an instant-read digital thermometer (an essential kitchen gadget) to determine the bread pudding’s doneness. Look for a temperature between 160° and 170°.

Step 4: Make the rum sauce

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Meanwhile, in a heavy saucepan, melt the remaining 1/4 cup of butter. Whisk in the brown sugar and cream.

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Cook, stirring, over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring the sauce to a gentle boil, cooking and stirring two minutes longer. Remove the pan from heat, then carefully stir in the rum and vanilla extract. Serve the warm sauce with the bread pudding.

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Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce Variations

• Change the booze: Rum is lovely, but this recipe would be fantastic with almost any brown liquor, including bourbon or rye. Try your favorites!
• Add extra spice: The cinnamon in this recipe is optional, but I’m here to say you shouldn’t skip it! While in front of the cupboard, consider some other fragrant fall spices like nutmeg, clove, allspice, ginger or cardamom.
• Add other fruit or nuts: Raisins are a great start, but you could add additional dried fruit to the recipe or swap out the raisins entirely. I love to use dried chopped dates, plums or apricots. Most nuts will work in this recipe, but you can’t go wrong with slivered almonds, walnuts or pecans.

How to Store Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce

Bread pudding should be stored, tightly covered, in the refrigerator. If you’d like the rum sauce to soak into the pudding, pour it over the pudding while it’s still warm. If you want to keep them separate, refrigerate any extra sauce in a small glass jar or tightly sealed container.

How long does bread pudding with rum sauce last?

Eat your bread pudding leftovers within four days.

Can you freeze bread pudding and rum sauce?

You can freeze cooled, well-wrapped bread pudding for up to three months. However, frozen eggy custards can become watery or rubbery when thawed, so it’s not necessarily recommended.

How do you reheat bread pudding with rum sauce?

You can reheat bread pudding in the microwave, or bake it at 350° until it’s heated through. You could also heat slices in a skillet with a little bit of melted butter.

Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce Tips

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What’s the best type of bread for bread pudding?

I love to make bread pudding using soft, fluffy loaves such as brioche or Portuguese sweet bread, as they do a beautiful job of soaking up the custard. However, I’ve also made excellent bread pudding with rustic European-style loaves and cinnamon raisin bread. You can even use leftover croissants or doughnuts.

Although you can be flexible about the type of bread you use, it should be a little dried out to better absorb the custard. If your bread is fresh and moist, dry it by cutting it into cubes, leaving it on the counter overnight, or toasting it lightly in the oven. If you try to make custard with fresh bread, there’s a risk of it being mushy.

How else can you use the rum sauce?

This rum sauce would be excellent drizzled over vanilla ice cream or fruit-flavored ice cream, spooned over a slice of sour cream pound cake, stirred into a cup of coffee, or used as a sauce on a fruit salad.

What can you serve with bread pudding with rum sauce?

This delicious dessert stands on its own, but you could always doll it up with a scoop of banana ice cream, a sprinkling of confectioners’ sugar or cocoa powder, or a dollop of whipped cream.