Recreate the epic O’hana bread pudding with spiced rum caramel sauce from Disney World’s Polynesian Resort. This dessert is a Disney fan favorite!
We recently returned from a surprise trip to Disney World with Addie. This was a vacation we had planned way back in November, but we never told her about it. One of my closest friends was celebrating her 10 year wedding anniversary and booked her vow renewal down in Orlando. She invited us to be part of the celebration, so we happily agreed to go.
Keeping this secret was hard. The day of the trip, we woke Addie up about 45 minutes earlier than normal. She asked me to take her to the bus stop but got confused when we got into the car. Then she asked why there was a suitcase in the back seat. She curiously asked, “Am I going to miss the bus today?”
I didn’t tell her about out destination until we sat down in the terminal to wait for our boarding time. She was still half groggy at the time and wasn’t as excited as I had expected. But, once we got down to Orlando, Addie’s eyes lit up.
We had a fantastic time at Disney World and enjoyed a fantastic meal at ‘Ohana (in the Polynesian Resort). One of their famous dishes is their bread pudding. It was served with a caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. I kept thinking about this dessert when I got home and wanted to recreate it so here it is.
I brought this ‘Ohana bread pudding with spiced rum caramel sauce to my friend’s cookout and shared it with all the family and friends she had invited to the vow renewal. They all said that this was better than the original, and that made me happier than a clam. I’m on a mission to make more dishes from our memorable vacation. Hope you come back soon to see what those are!
'Ohana bread pudding with spiced rum caramel sauce
Ingredients
Bread pudding
- 8 cups French or Italian loaf bread
- 5 eggs
- 3 cups milk of choice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
Spiced rum caramel sauce
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup spiced rum
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Make the bread pudding
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Cut the bread into 1-inch pieces and spread it out on a baking sheet. Bake in your preheated oven for about 15 minutes until lightly toasted. Generously grease a 9"x13" baking pan and place the toasted bread cubes into the pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, nutmeg and sugar. Pour this over the bread and make sure to get all of the pieces soaked with the egg mixture. If you have time to spare, cover and refrigerate this overnight so the bread has time to soak up all the egg mixture. If not, go on to the next step.
- Turn the oven down to 325 degrees F. Bake, covered with aluminum foil, for about 60 minutes and then uncovered for another 10 minutes. Allow the pudding to cool slightly before serving.
Make the caramel sauce
- In a medium sized, heavy bottomed and high sided pan, mix together the sugars, corn syrup and butter. Melt this over medium high heat and allow it to boil. Add half of the heavy cream (it will bubble vigorously) and continue to boil until the mixture starts to become golden brown. Add the spiced rum. I used a candy thermometer and let it get to 240 degrees F (soft ball stage). Then I added the remaining heavy cream and vanilla extract. If your caramel seizes and hardens, add more heavy cream or milk to thin it out.