Rum Raisin Bread Pudding with Apples
This rum raisin bread pudding is classic comfort food, studded with rum-soaked raisins, chunks of fresh apple, and a creamy egg custard. I like it best served warm, with either a caramel or custard sauce, whipped cream, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or even rum raisin ice cream to take it over the top!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 7 cups bread cubes, loosely packed (5-6 cups lightly packed) see post for bread recommendations
- 1 large baking apple, cored and diced (you can peel it if you prefer but I don't)
Rum Raisins
- ⅔ cup raisins (light, dark, or a mixture)
- ⅓ cup boiling water
- ⅓ cup rum (dark, spiced, or light rum)
Custard Mixture
- 6 large eggs
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup half and half or cream (sub whole milk for lighter pudding)
- 4 tbsp melted butter (2 oz. I use salted, if you use unsalted increase salt to 1 tsp)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon, ground
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp nutmeg (freshly grated if possible)
Instructions
Ingredient prep:
- In a small heat-resistant bowl or saucepan, pour the boiling water over the raisins, stir, then add the rum.
- Cover and let the raisins soak and plump for 5-10 minutes.
- Butter the 9" x 13" baking dish & set aside.
- Dice the bread into large 1"-1 1/2" cubes, and put them in the large mixing bowl.
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan, or a glass dish in the microwave.
Make custard:
- Crack the eggs individually into a small bowl or measuring cup before adding them to the medium bowl so that you can easily remove any bits of shell.
- Whisk the eggs together until they're a uniform, light lemony color.
- Whisk in the milk, cream, salt, and spices.
- Stir in the sugar and mix until it is well dissolved.
- Drizzle in the melted butter while whisking the mixture. The butter will congeal but evenly distribute it as well as you can.
Mix pudding:
- Mix the diced apple and soaked raisins (plus any remaining liquid) with the bread cubes in the large bowl and fold together.
- Pour the whisked custard mixture over the top of the bread cubes and fruit.
- Fold and stir gently to mix until all bread cubes are coated with custard mixture.
- Let the mixture soak for a few minutes, stirring occasionally so that the bread cubes evenly soak up the custard.
- Gently tip the bread and custard mixture into the buttered baking dish. Spread the mixture out into an even layer.
- At this point, you can cover and refrigerate the bread pudding for a few hours or overnight.
Bake pudding:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- If you like, you can sprinkle a teaspoon or two of cinnamon sugar or pearl sugar on top of the unbaked pudding.
- Cover the baking dish with foil, and bake for about 40 minutes, or until the custard is set in the center. If you refrigerated the unbaked pudding, you'll need to increase the baking time slightly.
- Uncover the pan and let the top brown and crisp for the last 5-10 minutes of baking.
- Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before slicing and serving.
- Refrigerate any leftovers for up to a week.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
