Apple Chocolate Chip Rum Bread Pudding

Basically if you have bread or in my case muffins and a touch of creativity, you’re only a hop, a skip, and a jump away from bread pudding! No recipe is required! My Apple Chocolate Chip Rum Bread Pudding is only a guideline, you can substitute or use any add-on you want to make it your own.

Bread pudding is a dessert born of desperation. Like this weekend, I made these honey whole wheat muffins, they didn’t turn out. Tasted fine, but didn’t rise and weren’t appealing to look at. I mean really not pretty looking. It was a recipe fail and I didn’t want to waste them! So Curtis suggested why not use them for bread pudding? Perfect!! And that is how this bread pudding occurred. We enjoyed it for two days with ice cream. I added apples and chocolate chips and an ounce of dark rum because who doesn’t add liquor to their desserts? I would have added bourbon but we were out.

What was once a way to use up leftovers of stale bread or pastries has turned into a sought-after comforting sweet. High end restaurants have it on their menu to being in every cookbook.

It’s also pretty much guaranteed that you have all the ingredients to make it right now, without a standard recipe. Do you have a loaf of brioche? A few croissants? Muffins? Panettone? As long as you have some sort of bread-like product, plus eggs, sugar, and milk, you have bread pudding waiting to be made. Choose the right bread though, white sandwich bread, eggy breads like challah or brioche or rustic country bread provide the best results.

If your chosen bread or pastry is still fresh, you can still use it as-is. When slicing your bread, aim for a uniform size. These chunks will be the building blocks of your pudding, so you want them to cook and absorb evenly. And leave those crusts on the bread!

Serve warm or at room temperature. Bread pudding is extra delicious with crème anglaise, coconut milk whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Or even for breakfast cold! Yes that’s right it can be an indulgent weekend breakfast. We happily at my Apple Chocolate Chip Rum Bread Pudding all weekend.

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Apple Chocolate Chip Rum Bread Pudding

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Apple Bread Pudding, Bread Pudding Recipe, Chocolate chip Bread Pudding, Dessert

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings 12 servings

Ingredients

• 5 eggs
• 2 cups almond milk
• 1 oz dark rum
• 2 large apples diced
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp vanilla agave syrup
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350° F.
2. Slice up bread or pastry into even slices or chunks.
3. Mix up the binder: the glue that unites, and flavors, your bread. We start with the eggs. Don't worry too much about this step -- the bread will absorb most of the liquid you give it, and whatever's left at the end you'll just pour over the top.
4. Next comes the sweetener. I used white granulated sugar, but feel free to sub in molasses, brown sugar or maple syrup. For 5 eggs, I used one cup of sugar, but the amount depends completely on your tastes.
5. Next, add in your milk-like liquid. You really shouldn't use anything with less fat than whole milk. You're already making bread pudding, for goodness sake, you might as well do it right. If you want to up the indulgence factor, feel free to swap out half the milk for heavy cream. If you want to be everyone in the entire world's best friend, switch out some of the milk for melted ice cream. If you're avoiding dairy, almond and soy milks are also fine substitutes. I used almond milk this time.
6. You want the amount of milk-like liquid to be about equal to the amount of beaten eggs. If you want your bread pudding to have a more custard-like texture, add in less milk. If you prefer it gooey, add in a bit more.
7. Bread pudding is a very personal thing, and you must use the flavors and textures you enjoy the most.
8. For my apple chocolate chip rum version, I added in about a shot's worth of dark rum. It adds that sense of a caramelized, rich flavor in the background of each bite, but don't actually detect the booze itself. You can also use bourbon or grand marnier but steer clear of floral or clear liquids.
9. Add in a dash of salt, do not forget to do this!
10. At this point you could toss in the grated zest of an orange, a teaspoon of vanilla, a splash of almond extract, or a pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg. Just remember less is more.
11. Pour the wet ingredients evenly over the bread. Toss to make sure it's all coated evenly.
12. Now's time to add your "chunks." you can skip this step if it's not appealing to you. I added in apples and chocolate chips, but you can add in nuts, raisins or other dried fruit.
13. Leave the bread mixture alone for 30 minutes so that the liquid has time to absorb.
14. Butter your pan. I prefer using butter instead of the spray or oil.
15. Sprinkle your buttered pan with some sugar. When you bake your bread pudding, the bottom will caramelize into a delicious, sticky crust. If you want more of a crunchy bottom à la lasagna, stick your sugared pan in the preheated oven for a few minutes until the sugar melts and begins to turn brown. Once this happens, take it out and pour in your bread mixture.
16. If there's an excess of liquid leftover, pour it over the top of the bread -- it'll turn into custard, which is never a bad thing.
17. Bake the bread pudding until, when you pull it apart slightly with a fork, no liquid comes out. This should be about 30 to 45 minutes depending on the size, but start checking it after 20 minutes. If the bread browns too much, cover the pudding with tin foil and continue baking.