Bread Pudding with Apple Butter Rum Sauce
Bread Pudding with Apple Butter Rum Sauce is a life-changing treat. This cozy comfort food is perfectly warm, dense, sweet, cinnamony, and beautiful!
Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 14 oz French bread or croissants diced into 1-2 inch cubes, stale or dried overnight (14 oz is 1 standard grocery store loaf of French bread)
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
Butter Rum Sauce
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup apple juice, apple sauce, or apple cider
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon rum extract or rum
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Bread Pudding
- Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease a 9x13 dish or a large cast iron pan and set aside.
- In a small saucepan, combine cream, sugar, and cinnamon over medium heat until steaming, but not boiling. Remove from heat and add vanilla.
- In a liquid measuring cup, whisk eggs. Slowly temper the egg mixture by adding 1/3 of the hot cream mixture into the eggs and whisking continually. Slowly add the egg mixture back to the rest of the heavy cream mixture and whisk to combine.
- Place the bread pieces into the greased dish.
- Pour the warm cream mixture through a fine mesh strainer over the bread pieces to remove any lumps. Press the bread into the custard and allow all the pieces to get coated. Be careful not to over mix. Soak for 5 minutes.
- Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until golden brown on top.
- Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing, or cool at room temperature until ready to eat. Enjoy with berries, whipped cream, and butter rum sauce.
Butter Rum Sauce
- Combine butter, sugars, apple juice, and heavy cream in a small pot and stir to combine. Bring to a boil for five minutes, stirring constantly.
- Remove from heat, and add extracts. Stir to combine, then serve.
Notes
- I use rum extract or rum bakery emulsion for this recipe, which adds great flavor without having to use actual alcohol.
- Try doubling the sauce to use as pancake syrup or ice cream syrup.
- Start with day old or stale bread. You can use croissants, french bread, or any kind of bread in this recipe. I do prefer a thicker bread vs. sandwich bread for the best texture. Sourdough bread would be a delicious variation of this recipe.
- If you only have fresh bread, cut the bread into 1-2 inch cubes and place on a lined cookie sheet. Either leave the bread uncovered on the counter or in the oven for a couple hours, or place it in the oven at 250ºF for about 15-20 minutes, shaking or tossing the bread every 5 minutes. You don’t want croutons, but you do want the bread to be able to absorb the custard without getting soggy.
- Allow the bread to soak in the custard mixture for a couple of minutes before baking. This will allow all the bread to absorb the flavors, and be able to have a consistent texture throughout after baking. If the bread doesn’t absorb the liquid, it might over-bake on the top and turn out too crispy.
- Bread pudding can be served hot out of the oven, at room temperature, or cut into squares and served cold.
- I recommend warming up the sauce and serving it warm, as the butter in the sauce will solidify and not have a great texture served cold.
- Add chunks of cream cheese, chocolate, nutella/nut butter, berries, dollops of pie filling, or stone fruit slices throughout the bread pudding before baking for a fun variation.
- Bread pudding will keep in the fridge for 7-10 days. I like to cut the cooked bread pudding into individual portions before storing in my favorite snapware containers, or in a gallon sized or sandwich sized baggy.
- To freeze, I like to wrap each portion in parchment paper to avoid sticking, then place each piece in a gallon sized bag. You can then take individual portions to rewarm in the microwave or thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Bread pudding stays good in the freezer for 3-6 months.