Cinnamon Bread Pudding with Salted Chocolate Rum Sauce

When the folks at Captain Morgan asked me to create Superbowl recipes, I was a bit stumped.  Not by the drink part because I can whip up a cocktail pretty easily.  But when I think of game day food I think of appetizers and wings and such.  Neither Brian nor I are much into that so I went blank for a while.  I even asked some football fanatic friends what they like to eat but it still felt foreign to me.

Finally I realized that nobody needed this non-hot wing lover to come up with another wing recipe but that every party needs a little something sweet.  I liked the idea of serving something with a warm sauce on the side because people could just help themselves to as little or as much as they liked.  And if bread pudding is not your thing, let me assure you that this sauce is really, really (really) good on ice cream.  Really.  Enjoy!











Ingredients

Bread Pudding:
1 Cup milk
1/4 Cup heavy cream
1/4 Cup sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla
2 Eggs
1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon salt
5 Slices of challah or other egg bread, cut into cubes

Add the milk, cream, salt and sugar to a pot and heat on a medium flame until it's barely bubbling and the sugar has dissolved.  Crack the eggs into a small bowl and temper them by slowly whisking in a tablespoon or two of the hot milk to avoid scrambling them.  Then add them to the milk pot along with the vanilla and cinnamon.  Cook on medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.  Do not overcook.

Place the bread cubes into a baking dish (mine is about 9" x 5") and pour the cooked custard over it.  Make sure it soaks all the way through to the bottom.  Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 35 - 40 minutes or until the custard has set.

Sauce:
1/2 Cup sugar
1 Cup heavy cream
4 oz. Milk chocolate
Pinch of sea salt
Pinch of cinnamon
2 oz. Captain Morgan Spiced Rum

Make the sauce by melting the sugar in a pot over a low to medium flame.  Do not walk away.  When the sugar has completely dissolved, remove it from the heat and add the heavy cream.  The mixture will bubble up.  Return to a low heat and stir vigorously until all lumps are gone and the sauce is a light golden brown.  Stir in the chocolate, cinnamon and sea salt.  Remove from the heat and immediately stir in the spiced rum.

This recipe is part of the CaptainsTable challenge where I get to play with rum and make fun recipes.  More importantly, for every recipe that anyone posts with the #CaptainsTable hashtag Captain Morgan Rum will donate $1 to WhyHunger.  So, if you have recipes to share on social media, please add the hashtag as well and check out other ideas on their Facebook and Pinterest pages.

Click here to see the game day cocktail I created.