Bread Pudding with Spiced Rum Sauce

If you are faint of heart when it comes to cooking with heavy whipping cream and lots of eggs (or wary of high cholesterol), you might want to stay away from this recipe. This Bread Pudding with Spiced Rum Sauce recipe asks for eight, yes EIGHT, eggs and 2 cups of whipping cream. I’d say it’s darn worth it though. Drizzled with the rum sauce, this bread pudding is a fantastic fall dessert. It’s incredibly easy to make and impressive to serve — this recipe is restaurant quality because it actually comes from a restaurant in Mississippi.

I halved the recipe and used a 9×9 pan. A tip: It’s best to assemble the bread pudding and let it sit overnight in the fridge before you bake it in order to let the bread really soak up the creamy mixture. And, if you use cinnamon raisin bread, you can skip a step and omit adding more raisins.

Bread Pudding

8 large eggs

3 1/2 cups whole milk

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1-pound loaf cinnamon challah or cinnamon-swirl bread, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 cup golden raisins

Butter 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Whisk eggs in large bowl to blend. Add milk, sugar, cream, and vanilla; whisk to blend well. Stir in bread and raisins. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours.Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake pudding uncovered until puffed and golden, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool slightly (pudding will fall). Serve warm with Spiced Rum Sauce.

Spiced Rum Sauce

1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup whipping cream

2 tablespoons spiced rum or dark rum

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Stir brown sugar and butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until melted and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add cream, rum, and cinnamon and bring to simmer. Simmer until sauce thickens and is reduced to 1 1/2 cups, about 5 minutes. Serve warm. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before serving.)

Makes 1 1/2 cups.

This article appears in Oct 27 – Nov 2, 2009.