To make a terrific bread pudding, start with a day-old stale loaf of bread or leftover rolls. If you're planning ahead, you can leave a sliced loaf out overnight, uncovered, to speed up the staling process. If you prefer, you can substitute high quality bourbon or whiskey for the rum.

• Prep: 45 min
• Cook: 45 min
• Total: 1 hour 30 min
• Serves 8 to 10

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Night Before

• 1 cup raisins
• ¼ cup dark rum
• Combine raisins and rum in a small bowl. Stir to combine and pat raisin down until submerged in as much of the liquid as possible. Cover and let rest.
• 10 slices of sandwich bread or 8 sweet dinner rolls
• Slice loaf and lay on a plate, uncovered, to become stale overnight.

Bread Pudding

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• reserved day-old bread or rolls
• Cut bread into 1-inch (or smaller) pieces and place in a large bowl.
• 4 cups milk
• Pour milk over bread and stir to combine. Press down on bread and stir until milk has been absorbed. Set aside.
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• In a medium bowl, cream eggs, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg with an electric hand mixer.
• reserved rum-soaked raisins
• Add creamed sugar-egg mixture and rum-soaked raisins to bowl with bread and stir to combine.
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• Coat a9x13 inch baking dish with melted butter. Pour in bread mixture and spread evenly, pressing down as you go. Bake at 350°F until golden brown and edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 35 to 45 minutes.
• When bread putting is done, remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. If desired, top with rum sauce.

Rum Sauce

• ½ cup butter, melted
• While bread pudding is baking, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• Add sugar and egg and whisk to combine. Continue to whisk until mixture thickens, about 2 minutes.
• ¾ cup dark rum, or to taste
• Whisk in rum and remove from heat. The sauce should be soft, creamy, and smooth.
• When bread pudding is done, pour half of the sauce on top of the bread pudding and let sit for 30 minutes to soak into bread. Serve rest on side.
• Best eaten fresh, but can be refrigerated and reheated in the microwave or oven for up to a week.

From MakeBetterFood.com. Dec 17, 2012. (http://makebetterfood.com/recipes/rum-raisin-bread-pudding/). Adapted from Simply Recipes.