Rum Sauce for Bread Pudding

Quick and classic rum sauce for bread pudding with a creamy thick texture, caramel, and vanilla flavors, and a warm touch of dark rum.

If you have some leftover stale bread and decided to make some bread pudding, I have the best bread pudding sauce recipe for you – the OG creamy and rich rum sauce made with real rum, toffee-like brown sugar, vanilla extract, buttery goodness, and heavy cream.

You would almost think, you should just eat it straight out of the saucepan and forget the bread pudding.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Quick & Easy. This recipe literally takes 15 minutes from start to finish with minimal prep time. Only 5 steps, a handful of simple ingredients, and, of course, rum. The best part? Minimal clean-up, it is a one-pan recipe.
• It is sweet and delicious, come on! Such a decadent dessert for the holiday season. We know that it is a classic choice for homemade bread pudding.
• Versatile. This buttered rum sauce works not only for the bread pudding! Any baked pies or bread with apples or pears, freshly made pancakes, French toast, cinnamon rolls, or crepes, will benefit from it.
• I love this warm sauce because I usually have all the ingredients on hand and I don’t have to make a trip to the grocery store.
• It is one of our favorite desserts in the colder months, along with warm bread pudding. It’s one of those good things you can’t resist.

Ingredients Notes

• Unsalted butter for a decadent and rich sauce base. Vegan and plant-based butter kinds are fine too.
• Brown sugar adds a caramel taste. Light or dark, up to you, dark brown sugar has more molasses thus a stronger taste.
• Heavy cream. If you have a sweet tooth you can actually add some extra sweetened condensed milk to the sauce. It will make it thicker and lighter in color as well. To make the rum sauce dairy-free you can use coconut cream.
• Dark rum is the key to the sauce. Dark rum has a smokier and richer flavor that will open up in the sauce. Clear rum doesn’t really work for this recipe. But your dessert won’t taste like alcohol, as the alcohol will evaporate during boiling.
• Vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt to balance out the sugar sweetness. Can easily skip if using salted butter.

Kitchen Equipment

• Small saucepan or medium saucepan

How To Make Rum Sauce For Bread Pudding

1. First, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
2. Whisk in the brown sugar and continue to heat until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Slowly stir in the heavy cream and bring the hot cream mixture to a gentle bubble – holding it at a bubble for 5 minutes. Continue to stir frequently throughout this time. 
4. Stir in the rum, vanilla, and salt and cook for 1-2 more minutes until the sauce thickens. If it keeps bubbling, lower the heat to let it simmer. Don’t worry if it is not too thick yet, it will thicken more while cooling on top of the bread pudding dessert.
5. Remove and let it cool for 5-10 minutes before serving. Serve warm.

The ready-to-serve sauce has caramel golden color and thick consistency but is still easy to pour or drizzle.

Check my easy bread pudding recipe to go with this sauce. 

Storage

It is best to immediately use the rum sauce and some whipped cream to top the bread pudding, but if you are making this recipe ahead of time, let the sauce cool completely before storing.

Pour the cooled rum sauce into a jar and store it in the fridge for up to one week. I don’t recommend storing it at room temperature.

If you are going to store your bread pudding, I would also suggest not using all the sauce at once and saving some up. If you’re planning to freeze the bread pudding, do not cover it with the rum sauce.

Substitutions & Variations

• Spiced rum sauce makes good use of holiday flavors. Add allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, anise star, and cloves – all work great with rum or bourbon. Will be perfectly warm and cozy for fall and winter afternoons. But the sauce is also called spiced rum sauce when you simply use the spiced type of rum.
• Rum substitutes. Close ones are bourbon or Grand Marnier if you want to use alcohol. If you want it non-alcoholic, you can use rum extract, non-alcoholic rum alternative, concentrated orange juice, or cranberry juice. You can also just skip the rum altogether and make a simple version of the sauce.
• Instead of heavy cream, you technically can use whole milk, but I then would add cornstarch or flour to make the milk mixture thicker. Prep the mix in a small bowl in advance. With just milk, the sauce will definitely be thinner and less creamy.
• Serve this butter rum sauce with banana bread pudding, rum bread pudding, croissant bread pudding, on a scoop of vanilla ice cream, pudding bakes, caramel bread pudding, Mexican recipes, Italian recipes, add a little to the custard mixture for added flavor, or drizzle on top of whipping cream.
• Change up the cubed bread in this family favorite and use cubed challah bread or French bread.

Expert Tips To Make The Best Rum Sauce

• Have leftovers? Store them and use them to drizzle over ice cream or other baked goods.
• If you’re making the sauce and the bread pudding at the same time, start making the sauce when the pudding is done and cooling. Otherwise, if you start earlier, the sauce will firm up and cool too much before you will be able to pour it on top of the bread pudding.
• I recommend pouring only half of the sauce over the pudding while it is still warm and save the rest for serving. Let the sauce really get into the bread pudding layers. You can leave it overnight and add the remaining sauce the next day.
• If sauce thickens while refrigerated, reheat it in the microwave, it will become more flowy again.
• Be very careful adding alcohol to the hot pot. Alcohol can make a flambe effect – literally set things on fire. Don’t freak out, just remove the saucepan from the stove, mix in the alcohol better, and continue cooking.

If you love this sauce recipe, you’re going to love these other sauces and spreads too. Please click each link below to find the easy, printable recipe!

More Great Recipes with Rum

Rum Cake

Rum Balls

New York Cheesecake Rum Float

Classic Homemade Eggnog

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