Grand America Hotel’s Bread Pudding Recipe

When I first tasted this dessert at The Grand for a work lunch, I was in heaven. I forgot what the conversation was about and could only think of how to recreate this amazing bread pudding. Luckily, Carrie, Director of Events, emailed me the recipe! EEEK! I couldn't wait to get baking! Well, actually, I could..I waited about 3 weeks. This is a no fail, delicious dessert. The rum sauce is what it's all about!

Okay, don't call your dietician after reading these ingredients. It's like a Paula Deen recipe on steroids.

Grand America Hotel’s Bread Pudding Recipe

Ingredients:

1 Cup Whole Eggs, Whisked

1 Cup Granulated Sugar

1 Cinnamon Stick

3 Cups Heavy Cream

1 Tbsp. Vanilla Extract

12-16 oz Croissants

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs very well and set aside. Heat the cream with the sugar, cinnamon stick, and vanilla extract. Heat until hot, but not simmering. Whisk the eggs into the hot mixture, then strain and set aside. In a seperate bowl, break up the bread into small pieces. Pour the custard over the bread and mix very well. Let the bread soak in the custard for 10 minutes. Distribute into a 9x13 baking dish and cover with foil. Place the dish in a large pan filled with 1 inch of hot water. Bake for 60 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

Rum Sauce

Ingredients:

1 Cup  Granulated Sugar

2/3 Cup  Dark Brown Sugar

2/3 Cup Apple Juice

¾ Cup Heavy Cream

1 ½ Tbsp. Meyers Rum

1 Cup Unsalted Butter

Directions:

Place sugar, brown sugar, apple juice, heavy cream, and rum in a sauce pan, stir to combine. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. With an immersion blender, blend in the butter. Continue blending the sauce about 4-5 minutes. Cool the sauce in an ice bath until reaching room temperature. Keep in refrigerator, covered until ready to serve.

What could taste bad with these ingredients?

For the eggs, I used large eggs, and it turned out to be 5 whole eggs whisked together to equal the cup.

The cinnamon and vanilla make the custard so warm and yummy tasting.

I didn't strain this custard, like the directions say. I just dumped it in, took out the cinnamon stick of course.

 I would lay on this pile of custard and croissants if I was a small person.Try not to break up the pieces to much when mixing, I did more of a folding method.

 I didn't blend the butter with an immersion blender, I just put two sticks in and heated up the mix and stirred until all the butter was melted. I am sure there is a reason for the blender, but 1) I don't have one and 2) melting and stirring was my next best choice. Also I used Bacardi Rum instead of Meyers- it was cheaper.

I split the batch up into 2 8x8 pans, one to take to a dinner party and one to leave home for Wes and I to devour late night. It took about 40 minutes for both to bake. Bake until a knife comes out clean.

OH MAN! Every bite was just as I remembered when I first tasted this.You will LOVE this recipe! Happy Baking!