Banana Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce

This Banana Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce is a rich and decadent dessert that not only tastes good, but it looks impressive and is simple to make. Served in individual ramekins, the spiced rum is infused into both the bread pudding as well as the sweet warm sauce.

Why this recipe works:

Who doesn't love bread pudding?  It is one of my favorite dessert recipes. Everything you love about french toast, but wrapped up in a soft custard-like package.

• The banana slices and toasted nuts add amazing flavor and texture.
• This bread pudding is baked in individual ramekins, creating a ready-to-serve recipe.
• The sweet rum sauce can be made while the bread pudding is cooking.
• Since the challah bread needs time to absorb the liquid prior to cooking, this can be an easy make ahead dessert.

How to make this recipe:

To make the banana bread pudding:

1. First step is to roast the nuts. It only takes a few minutes but adds a tremendous amount of flavor.
2. In the same pan you'll make a bubbly sauce with butter, sugar, spiced rum, and sugar. You'll add the bananas and toasted nuts to this mixture and toss to combine.
3. To prepare the banana bread pudding, you'll layer cubes of challah bread with this sauce in greased ramekins. A mixture of half and half, eggs, vanilla, spiced rum, and sugar are poured over the bread.
4. After the bread has had time to enjoy the liquid, bake the bread pudding in a preheated oven.

Just look at how these beauties puff up while they're cooking.  As with anything made with a lot of eggs, they deflate once they come out of the hot oven, but only a little bit.  And to be honest, you need them to deflate a bit so you can have a nice well to pour that glorious caramel spiced rum sauce all over everything.  

To make the rum sauce:

1. In a saucepan over medium high heat, you'll melt some butter.
2. Heavy cream, sugar, and salt are added and brought to a boil.
3. At this point, you'll remove the slightly thickened sauce from the heat and stir in the spiced rum.

This warm sauce gets poured over the banana bread pudding just prior to serving.

Cooking tips:

• I cooked the rum sauce in the same pan I cooked the bananas in. Less dishes and extra banana flavor!
• I highly recommend Challah bread for this recipe, however you can substitute with other varieties of thick, squishy bread.
• I use sliced almonds in this recipe, however you can substitute with any variety of nut that you prefer. Pecans, walnuts, or macadamia nuts will all work great. You can omit as well.
• I like yellow bananas. Ripe enough to eat but firm enough to slice. Overly ripe bananas like the kind you would use in banana bread don't hold up as well.

Related recipes:

Are you a fan of homemade bread pudding as well? You'll have to try these favorites.

• Berry Bread Pudding
• Classic Bread Pudding with Vanilla Caramel Sauce
• Fruit Jam Bread Pudding
• Lemon Blueberry Ricotta Bread Pudding
• Apple Croissant Bread Pudding
• Brown Butter Pumpkin Bread Pudding

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Banana Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce

This Banana Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce is a rich and decadent dessert that not only tastes good, but it looks impressive and is simple to make.

5 from 8 votes

Print Pin Rate SaveSaved!

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Hover to scale: 6 servings

Chef: Krissy Allori

Ingredients

Banana Bread Pudding:

• ▢ ¼ cup almond slivers
• ▢ 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ▢ 2 tablespoons spiced rum
• ▢ 5 tablespoons sugar (divided)
• ▢ 4 bananas (sliced)
• ▢ 8 ounces challah (cut into 1 inch cubes (about 5 cups))
• ▢ ¼ cup spiced rum
• ▢ 2 cups half and half
• ▢ 4 eggs
• ▢ 1 tablespoon vanilla

Rum Sauce

• ▢ 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ▢ ½ cup heavy whipping cream
• ▢ ½ cup packed brown sugar
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 2 tablespoons spiced rum

Instructions

To make the banana bread pudding:

• In shallow pan, lightly toast nuts over medium low heat. Continually shake or stir to prevent burning. Remove from heat when they start to turn golden brown. Set aside.
• In saute pan, cook butter, 2 tablespoons rum, and 2 tablespoons sugar over medium heat until bubbly. Turn heat to low, add bananas and nuts, toss to coat evenly. Cook for 2 minutes, then remove from heat.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease six 8 ounce ramekins or an 8x8 baking dish and place on rimmed baking sheet.
• Place half of the bread in the greased dish(es). Evenly top with the banana nut mixture. Cover evenly with remaining bread.
• In a separate bowl, combine half and half, eggs, vanilla, ¼ cup spiced rum and remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar. Whisk to combine. Pour evenly over bread mixture until all liquid is used. Gently press bread into liquid to full absorb. Allow mixture to rest a minimum of 15 minutes to absorb the liquid.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake 45 minutes until puffed and golden and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

To make the rum sauce:

• In sauce pan over medium high heat, melt butter. Add heavy cream, sugar and salt. Stir to combine and bring to boil. Remove from heat and stir in rum.

Serve banana bread pudding warm and top with rum sauce.

Notes

• I cooked the rum sauce in the same pan I cooked the bananas in. Less dishes and extra banana flavor!
• I highly recommend Challah bread for this recipe, however you can substitute with other varieties of thick, squishy bread.
• I use sliced almonds in this recipe, however you can substitute with any variety of nut that you prefer. Pecans, walnuts, or macadamia nuts will all work great. You can omit as well.
• I like yellow bananas. Ripe enough to eat but firm enough to slice. Overly ripe bananas like the kind you would use in banana bread don't hold up as well.

NUTRITION INFORMATION

Calories: 586kcal | Carbohydrates: 51g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 33g | Saturated Fat: 19g | Cholesterol: 216mg | Sodium: 330mg | Potassium: 228mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 1165IU | Vitamin C: 0.7mg | Calcium: 167mg | Iron: 1.9mg

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This recipe was originally published in April 2019 and has been updated with helpful information, ingredient and process photos, as well as recipe tips. Don't worry - the recipe hasn't changed!