Rum Bread Pudding

I made this last night for "Big Easy Bunco," and it turned out so well. It was literally melt-in-your-mouth good! I always try to plan Bunco food around a theme, so I tried to find recipes from or inspired by New Orleans. This sounded so good, I had to try it! I started with a recipe from the Experience New Orleans website, and made a few changes.

RUM BREAD PUDDING:

- 8 slices Hawaiian bread, cut or broken into small pieces (I used Van De Kamp's Sweet Hawaiian Bread)
- 4 oz butter (1 stick), melted
- 8 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 5-oz can evaporated milk
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla (I never measure vanilla, so approximately)
- cinnamon and sugar mixture

Mix butter, eggs, sugar, milk and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the bread, and fold the mixture until the bread is all coated. Pour in a 9x13 pan and sprinkle the top generously with the cinnamon and sugar mixture (I'm guessing I used maybe 1/3 to 1/2 cup.) Place the pudding pan in a larger pan of water, and bake at 350 for about one hour.
** The instruction about baking in a pan of water is in pretty much every bread pudding recipe I've seen, so it's important. If you don't have a pan larger than a 9x13, it's probably better to make a smaller recipe to fit the pans you have, than to bake it without the second pan. I'm speculating

SAUCE FOR BREAD PUDDING
1 lb. box powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla (approximately)
4-6 ounces of rum (approximately; I just added rum until the consistency was right)
6 oz butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted
** Variation: use 1-2 tsp rum flavoring and thin the sauce with milk instead, the amount may vary.

Slowly heat the butter, rum and vanilla on low. Add powdered sugar, about a third at a time, stirring until blended. Pour over hot bread pudding. (I drizzled a bit over the pudding, and served the sauce on the side. This recipe makes a LOT of sauce, and because I didn't exactly measure the rum, I knew some of my guests might want to have less.)


-- Originally posted at: http://rebeccasmiscellanies.blogspot.com/