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.

Who doesn’t love bread pudding? Seriously. I want to know who. If you aren’t sure if you like bread pudding because you’ve never had it, start with this recipe and you’ll be hooked. I made this (pretty darn delicious, if I do say so myself) bread pudding when I was visiting my sister. When I got to her house for my week long visit, I asked: “what kind of things do you want me to cook this week?” She promptly replied: “ratatouille with goat cheese polenta, bacon wrapped dates, and bread pudding.” She asked and I delivered, just not all in the same night. I did do something, however, that I don’t recommend. I made both the bacon wrapped dates and the bread pudding in the same morning and ate way too much of both. Yeah. You should be smarter and healthier than me. Or don’t. You only live once, right?

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. See that cute little hand pouring that sauce ~~that I just wanted to drink~~? That’s my awesome foodie-in-training son, not even in kindergarten yet, but a freakin’ pro when it comes to pouring sauces or holding bites of food steady for the camera. He’s my assistant and I pay him in food.

Ingredients

Banana Bread Pudding:

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

Rum Sauce

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons spiced rum

Instructions

To make the banana bread pudding:

In shallow pan, lightly toast nuts. 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, 1/4 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.
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!

Nutrition

Questions about the nutrition information?Check out my Nutrition Disclaimer

Love banana bread recipes?

You’ll definitely want to try these:

Banana Walnut Bread Recipe with sour cream
Carrot Cake Banana Bread
Triple Chocolate Banana Bread
Raspberry Banana Bread
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Pumpkin Banana Bread with Walnut Streusel Topping
Chocolate Tahini Banana Bread
Chocolate Swirl Banana Bread
Banana Bread Brownies

Banana Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce