Jamaican Bread Pudding with Hot Butter Rum Sauce

What is Bread Pudding?

Bread pudding is a rich, sweet, dense dessert made of bread soaked in a flavorful custard and then baked. It’s often served warm with a hot butter rum sauce and ice cream. If you have stale bread that you’d like to get rid of, you can use that to make bread pudding. In fact, it’s often made with bread that’s a few days old.

Jamaican Bread Pudding Recipe Ingredients

Jamaican Bread Pudding contains ingredients common to Jamaican culture such as vanilla extract, rose water, almond essence, hard dough bread, nutmeg, and mixed spice. The hot butter rum sauce includes dark brown sugar and Caribbean white rum.

Hot Butter Rum Sauce

The Hot Butter Rum Sauce is something you don’t want to skip! Trust me, this warm, sweet, and decadent syrup drizzled on top of your bread pudding will take this dessert to another level. You can use the liquor of your choice, whether it be rum or whiskey. I recommend a spiced rum, or a classic Caribbean white rum. If you’re having a sober moment, you can also choose to omit the rum for this recipe too. All you need is salted butter, brown sugar, heavy cream, and rum!

How to Serve and Store Bread Pudding and Hot Butter Rum Sauce

This dessert absolutely works as a leftovers. The bread pudding contains dairy, so store it covered and refrigerated for no longer than 3 days. You can also opt for cutting sections of the bread pudding and freezing portions so you can continue to enjoy the dessert for weeks to come. Simply warm the bread pudding in the microwave just before you enjoy! The Hot Butter Rum Sauce, however, has slightly different rules. This can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days and will solidify, so warm before enjoying. I do not recommend freezing.

Ingredients

• 10 slices of Jamaican Hardo bread, cut into squares
• 1 tsp of Ground Cinnamon
• 1 tsp of Ground Nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp of Salt
• 1 tsp of Mixed Spice
• 1/2 cup of Raisins
• 1/2 cup of Currants (ok to use raisins if unable to find currants)
• 6 Eggs, beaten
• 1 cup of Granulated Sugar
• 1 tsp of Vanilla Extract
• 1 tsp of Almond Essence
• 1 tsp of Rose Water
• 1 can of Unsweetened Coconut Milk
• 1 can of Evaporated Milk
• 1 cup of Maraschino Cherries

Hot Butter Rum Sauce

• 4 tbsp of Salted Butter
• 1/2 cup of Dark Brown Sugar
• 3/4 cup of Heavy Cream
• 1 tbsp of Caribbean white rum

Directions

Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Slice your Hardo bread into cubes and add cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and mixed spice along with raisins and currants. Use your hand to manually fold the ingredients.
Next, you’ll make your custard. Beat your eggs, add vanilla extract, almond essence, rose water, sugar, coconut milk, and evaporated milk. Mix well.
Add your custard to the to the bread mixture and using a spatula, gently fold the custard. Allow to soak for 15 minutes. Once your bread pudding has soaked, add it to a greased 2 quart Pyrex dish and top with cherries. I used a small spoon to drizzle some of the cherry syrup on top of the bread pudding. Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. While the bread pudding is in the oven make your Hot Butter Rum Sauce.

Hot Butter Rum Sauce:

Place a small saucepan on medium heat. Melt butter and then add sugar. You’ll immediately see the fat from the butter separate from the sugar and form a white coating over the sugar. Continue to stir until the sugar completely melts and starts to become slightly frothy. Be careful not to burn the sugar and ensure it doesn’t become black. Continue stirring and slowly add heavy cream while vigorously stirring. Add rum, and cornstarch. Stir until cornstarch completely dissolves. Your rum sauce should become thick with a syrup-like consistency.
Allow your bread pudding to cool and then spoon the Hot Butter Rum Sauce over each slice of bread pudding. Serve with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream and enjoy!