In an earlier post we talked about shoppin’ our closets, the pantry and fridge- working down what we have on hand. This week, we cleared out the pantry and found 3/4 of a loaf of raisin bread, some raisins, a can of evaporated milk and a jar of hot fudge sauce. In the south we love our bread puddings! Raisin Bread is almost perfect for a good bread pudding but how could we make this one different? Bread pudding usually has a hard sauce for the topping- we had the jar of Hot Fudge Sauce and who doesn’t like chocolate covered raisins? Hold the popcorn at the movies, give me some chocolate covered raisins! So, what about a hard sauce made with raisins, rum, and hot fudge sauce? We keep some ‘likker’ here just for medicinal and cooking purposes you know…whiskey, bourbon and rum are ‘must-haves’ in the southern kitchen, almost like strings of pearls and white blouses in a southern lady’s wardrobe, got have those accessories! We had plenty of eggs, milk, pure cane sugar and vanilla extract so we were set!
Camellia’s Cottage Raisin’ Cain Bread Pudding
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees if baking right away.
- Tear 3/4 loaf of raisin bread into large pieces- (we used Pepperidge Farm) in a large mixing bowl.
- In a Pyrex 4 cup measure, crack 4 large eggs, add one can of evaporated milk, 1/4 cup of brewed coffee, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 stick of melted and cooled butter, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg and 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
- With a whisk, mix the egg mixture until foamy, pour over raisin bread pieces and allow the mixture to set until the bread is completely soaked – about 15 minutes or you can refrigerate overnight.
- Butter a 9×12 glass baking dish. Pour in soaked bread mixture. This bread pudding will rise.
- Bake 30-40 minutes in hot oven. Do not over bake!
- Meanwhile soak 3/4 cup of raisins in 1 cup of dark rum (we used Bacardi Dark Puerto Rican Rum).
- Remove from oven when Bread Pudding is set and tops of bread are beginning to brown. Dot with more butter and sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top- you can use plain sugar if you don’t have cinnamon sugar mixed up. We always have that in our pantry!
- Lightly drain the plumped rum raisins and drizzle the excess rum over the hot bread pudding. Don’t waste any of that hard stuff!
- Bread Puddings can be served hot or at room temperature, we let ours cool a bit while we prepared the hard sauce, Rum Raisin Hot Fudge Sauce, are you raisin’ cain yet? We never said this was going to be low cal…
Camellia’s Cottage Rum Raisin Hot Fudge Sauce
We had a jar of Hershey’s Hot Fudge Sauce which we heated in the microwave according to directions on the jar. We spooned it into a small saucepan and added the rum soaked raisins to chocolate sauce- now, how else are you gonna make hot fudge sauce into a ‘hard sauce’ without the ‘hard likker’?
Darlin’ you’re gonna want to keep this recipe on hand, even if you just spoon the sauce over ice cream! We topped our bread pudding with the Rum Raisin Hot Fudge Sauce, whipped cream and to make it healthy we added that sweet sprig of fresh mint!
Sugar Cane is grown in Alabama, that’s why we’re so sweet! Shoppin’ our pantry is going to be fun!
Love y’all, Camellia
Hi, my name is Camellia, a fictional character who is an Alabama girl born and bred. Brenda Wyatt created me as a composite of the finest ladies from her home state who will share good things about life in the south. Alabama is a place where we love our folks, our friends, our homes, humor and hospitality. My name comes from the state flower, the Camellia. You might call it a shrub, but if you live here you either call it a bush or just say- ‘Would you look at that Camellia’. Like Brenda told me, ‘Darlin’ your name is gonna be Camellia; it’s the epitome of a southern lady- but like me, it blooms in the dead of winter’. Shh…don’t tell it- Brenda is of a ‘certain age’, but she’s decided to flourish later in life and learn some technology! At some point I hope to introduce you to my fictional friend (what other kind would I have?) named Allie Mac, a play on Camellia spelled backwards. 
Brenda was conflicted as to which character would be the main one. Thank the Lord, I’m the one who won out, Allie Mac is always telling me I need to update and I’m the one telling her we need to do things like we’ve always done. That’s how things are in Alabama- embracing the future and hangin’ on to what’s good about our upbringing. We were taught to write a thank you note, not an email or a post on social media but a real thank you note on real paper written with a real pen, put in an envelope with a real stamp from the US Post Office. It’s just the right thing to do.
Camellia's Cottage 