Bread Pudding Part 1: Sweet

So, those of you who read this bad boy with any regularity will know that I made less than awesome tasting bread a week or so ago. What does one do with bread that seem rather inedible...MAKE BREAD PUDDING!

The big question is what type of bread pudding to make and how much of it...

Whelp, I had quite a bit of bread between what was made in the Crockpot (bleh) and what was cut off from when I made French Toast Roll Ups. As I had enough, I decided to make a sweet and a savory bread pudding this time. Since Husband and I have a couple smaller casserole (like 9X5) dishes, I find I can get away with making small meals in them very well. I was planning on using them for these dishes, but then I though of my AWESOME food savor and decided to make single serving bread puddings with my muffin tin to food save as quick dishes for Husband and myself! BOOM! Watch out!

SWEET BREAD PUDDING:

As I had a surplus (well, 3) of apples that were about to go bad (but thanks to the Food saver I was able to prolong when I had to make this dish), I decided to do the sweet one with apples. I had to half up the measurements, not totally sure it will work yet. Might increase/decrease as I go. Also, the cooking time from the recipe was iffy since I made them in the Muffin Tins.

APPLE RUM BREAD PUDDING WITH BUTTERSCOTCH RUM SAUCE

Ingredients
3 cups of bread
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp rum
2 large apples, peeled and cored, cut into thin slices or cubes (whichever you prefer)
To make the bread pudding:

Lightly toast the bread cubes in the oven or in a small oven toaster until very light brown with a slight crunch, 5 to 10 minutes should do. Remove and set aside.

Heat the milk with the brown sugar and granulated sugar in a pan on low heat until completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool for 5 minutes. Transfer this mixture to a bowl and mix in the heavy cream. Whisk in the eggs gradually until well combined. Add the vanilla, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and rum and mix well. Set aside. 

In another bowl, sprinkle the 1/4 tsp cinnamon over the apples and mix until well coated.

Butter an 8x8 inch square baking dish. Arrange half the amount of bread cubes in a single, even layer. Spread the apples evenly over the bread cubes. Top with the remaining half of bread cubes. Carefully pour the custard mixture evenly over the whole thing. Set aside for 30 minutes at room temperature or overnight in the fridge, covered. Gently press down the bread cubes with the back of a wooden spoon to properly soak all the bread cubes every 10 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes until the pudding is set. Best served warm drizzled with the butterscotch rum sauce.

BUTTERSCOTCH RUM SAUCE

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 1/2 tbsp + 1/2 tsp butter

1/2 cup brown sugar, tightly packed

1 tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp rum

Put everything together, except for the rum, in a saucepan on low heat and boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring once in a while until nice and thick. Remove from the heat and stir in the rum. Drizzle warm pudding slices with the sauce before serving.

Cutting up the apples.

Ready to be baked!

Sauce it up.

Bubble Bubble toil and trouble!

Two pieces each.

The sauce made this dessert.

These were very well received. I served them at Sunday night Doctor Who Dinner and everyone gave a resounding YES to them. The sauce was most certainly the kicker with the Honey, Butter, and Rum. I prepped all this in about 20 minutes (granted the apples were sugared and cinnamoned prior).
I then took the muffin tin down to our friend's house and baked them there and thickened the sauce over their stove top. With the muffin tin approach, they really only needed 35 minutes of baking versus 45, but every oven is different! Watch them if you decide to try the muffin tin approach.

Until part 2...