Portuguese Bread Pudding With Rum and Salted Caramel Sauce

A custard-like bread pudding topped with a salty sweet caramel sauce. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and caramel sauce drizzle!

• Ready In: 2 hrs 20 mins
• Serves: 15
• Yields: 1 piece

Ingredients

• 1  Portuguese bread, loaf cut into 1 inch cubes (10-12 cups)
• 4  cups  whole milk
• 4  tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2  teaspoons vanilla extract
• 6  eggs
• 3  tablespoons salted butter
• 3⁄4 cup brown sugar
• 1  tablespoon rum
• 1⁄3 cup heavy cream

Directions

1. Heat milk, unsalted butter and vanilla extract in a pan over medium heat until butter melts.
2. Take milk mix off of heat and set aside until cool.
3. While milk is cooling, place bread cubes in a single layer on a cookie sheet and toast at 350 for 10 minutes to make them stale. This may take 2-3 batches.
4. Coat a 9x13 baking dish with butter and add all toasted bread cubes to this dish.
5. When milk has cooled, beat all 6 eggs in a separate bowl and mi into milk mixture.
6. Pour milk and egg mixture over bread cubes, pressing down gently to ensure all pieces get coated. Let soak for 1 hour.
7. After 1 hour, bake for 50 minutes uncovered until bread is brown but center is still a little jiggly.
8. While bread pudding is cooling, begin to make the caramel sauce.
9. In a sauce pan, melt butter in pan over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and rum and stir until sugar is dissolved and bubbling.
10. Very slowly add the cream, stirring constantly.
11. Remove from heat.
12. To serve, plate a 3 inch square of warm bread pudding. Drizzle with a little caramel sauce. Top with a small scoop of vanilla bean ice cream (optional) and drizzle with a little more sauce.