Chocolate Chip Orange Bread Pudding with Cinnamon Rum Sauce

​You'd probably be surprised at how many bread cubes for bread pudding you can get from a single loaf of challah. Trust me when I tell you, it’s a lot! After I made this version (and then a couple of servings of Pecan Pie French Toast), I still had enough bread left over to experiment with another variety. 

This one will take you to heaven! Between the marmalade, orange zest, and dark chocolate chips all within the bread pudding to the Cinnamon Rum Sauce drizzled over the top, this is, in so many ways, a winner! If you love bread pudding as much as I have come to do, you must try this one. I made mine in individual portions using these ramekins (that I absolutely adore and have found so many uses for, both sweet and savory), but you can make yours in a 9” x 9” pan (or 1½ -quart casserole) if you prefer.

Chocolate Chip Orange Bread Pudding

with Cinnamon Rum Sauce

​1 1-lb. loaf challah, cut into 1-inch cubes

8 T. butter, melted

½ cup orange marmalade

1 c. semisweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

2 c. half and half

1 c. sugar

5 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

4 t. vanilla extract

Pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 1.5 quart casserole dish, or 6-8 individual ramekins. Spread marmalade onto the bottom of the prepared dish. (If using ramekins, place 1 tablespoon of marmalade in each dish, spreading to cover the bottoms.)

Place bread in large bowl; pour 8 tablespoons melted butter over bread and toss to coat. Add chocolate chips and zest, and toss to combine. Transfer mixture to casserole dish.

Whisk together half and half, sugar, eggs, yolks, vanilla, and salt in large bowl. Pour over bread cubes in dish. Let stand 30 minutes, occasionally pressing bread cubes into custard. (At this point it can be covered and refrigerated overnight.) Bake bread pudding until puffed, brown, and set in center, about 1 hour for casserole, 40-45 minutes for ramekins.

Dust with powdered sugar, if desired. Serve warm with Cinnamon-Rum Sauce.

Cinnamon Rum Sauce

1 cup butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

½ t. ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup dark rum

1 T. Vanilla extract

Melt unsalted butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add dark brown sugar, ground cinnamon, and salt, and whisk until sugar is dissolved and mixture is bubbling and smooth, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Whisk in dark rum and vanilla extract. Serve warm.

(Cinnamon-Rum Sauce can be prepared 2 days ahead, covered, and refrigerated, and warmed just before serving. It is excellent over ice cream, apple pie, apple dumplings, you name it!)

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If, like me, you enjoy chocolate in your bread pudding, you might want to check out this Double Chocolate Bread Pudding.

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New Orleans-Style Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce

I am often amused at the things that inspire me. I am currently involved in the sad task of clearing out the house that my mother and dad shared for over 30 years. As you can imagine, it is quite a challenge. It’s not just 30 years of memories, but a lifetime of memories, as many of them had been moved from their previous home. On the plus side, I have uncovered some real treasures. My mother, though not the dish-collecting enthusiast that I am, did manage to hold her own. I will end up with some beautiful sets of dishes.

While cleaning out the hutch in the breakfast nook I came upon a darling little wavy-edged, yellow, square Italian baking dish. I thought it was as cute as a button, and the first thing I that I wanted to make in it was bread pudding. Don’t ask me why, it’s small, and only makes servings for four, but it was so darned cute, that I couldn’t resist.

The result was excellent! I was put onto this recipe by fellow blogger Alycia Nichols from Tablescapes at Table 21. I’m sure a lot of you know her. She had made rice pudding (that still sounds good to me) and sent me her recipe for rice pudding, and the whiskey sauce that she used to top it. The whiskey sauce was a part of this bigger recipe. I tinkered with it a little bit to make it more flavorful, and it really is delicious. Add more whiskey if you like, it’s cold and flu season, you’re probably doing yourself a favor in the long run.

New Orleans-Style Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce

 Adapted from One Dish Kitchen

5 cups cubed challah bread

1 tablespoon butter

2 large eggs

2 cups milk

1/4 cup whiskey

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon salt

WHISKEY SAUCE

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 cup whiskey

½ teaspoon whiskey flavoring

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease an 8 x 6 - inch baking dish with the tablespoon of butter; set aside.

Place the cubes of bread in a large bowl; set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, whiskey, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Pour over the bread and gently stir to combine. Allow the mixture to stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.

Transfer the bread mixture to the baking dish and bake until the center of the bread pudding is set, 45 to 50 minutes.

While the bread pudding is baking, make the whiskey sauce.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the cream, milk, and sugar. Place the cornstarch, whiskey, and whiskey flavoring into a small mixing bowl and whisk until smooth.

Pour the whiskey mixture into the cream mixture and bring to a boil. Once the sauce begins to boil, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

Remove the sauce from the heat, add the salt, and stir in the butter.

After the bread pudding has finished baking, remove from the oven and pour Whiskey Sauce over the top; serve warm.

Makes 2 massive appetite servings or 4 regular ones.

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If you like your bread pudding with a bit of chocolate added, then you will love Sunset 44 Bistro's Bread Pudding.

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Bread Pudding with Boozy Caramel Sauce

Do you all remember the tale of two cheesecakes? Well, here is another story that led to the making of this, what I like to call, “infamous bread pudding.” Mr. O-P makes a mighty fine bread pudding (and there is a whole other story about this, and me, and German pancake, but I digress). A month ago, he had a hankering and decided he was going to make some. So, he bought one of those take-and-bake baguettes from the local market, brought it home, baked it, cut it into thirds to let it dry out a bit, and left it on the counter where it indeed did dry out, but also grew so much mold that you could have pet it. Into the trash it went. So much for that, I thought, but I was wrong. This same exercise took place four weeks in a row! Four baguettes, baked, sliced, dried, moldy, and into the trash. For a doer like me, it was quite vexing. Did I mention the quart of whole milk that he'd bought that slowly expired while lying in wait in the fridge? For a Type “A” like me, this was nothing short of maddening!

When he made his cheesecake, one of the ingredients was heavy cream. Now, we use a lot of heavy cream around here, just ask my hips. But, I am a date watcher, and he, a Type “B” is not, so it was with great horror that I looked at the date on this nearly full quart of expensive heavy cream and noticed that it was a day before expiration! As you may have guessed, I ended up making a bread pudding of my own. It was not without incident. I made my own cinnamon swirl challah that, while delicious, contained too much butter in the filling. It ran over the sides of the pan, burned and smoked on the bottom of the oven, setting off the smoke detectors, that ran, incessantly, for 25 minutes. When I could take the screeching no longer (Not to mention the robotic woman’s voice that warned, “Fire! Fire!”) I removed it from the oven and watched it collapse onto itself in the pan because it just hadn’t baked long enough. I’ll spare you further detail, but will say that I ended up saving it by turning it into cinnamon challah croutons, and ended up with this delicious bread pudding.

Bread Pudding with Boozy Caramel Sauce

Adapted from a recipe on epicurious.com

6 extra-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, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup golden raisins

2 tablespoons dark rum

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Put raisins in a small bowl and pour rum on top. Let stand while making the bread pudding.

Butter a 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Whisk eggs in a large bowl until well blended and lemon colored. Add milk, sugar, cream, and vanilla; whisk to blend. Stir in cubed bread and rum raisins. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish, spreading to evenly distribute ingredients. Press down with palms of hands. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours.

Bake pudding, uncovered, until puffed and golden, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool slightly (pudding will fall). Serve warm with Boozy Caramel Sauce.

Boozy Caramel Sauce
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons dark rum
1 tablespoon whiskey
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Stir brown sugar and butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until melted and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Add cream, rum, whiskey, and cinnamon and bring to a simmer. Simmer until sauce thickens and is reduced to 1 1/2 cups, about 5-7 minutes. Serve warm. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before serving.)

This post is linked to:

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