Butterscotch Budino Bread Pudding

What Is Butterscotch Budino Bread Pudding?

When you combine one great pudding with another great pudding, you get the Butterscotch Budino Bread Pudding. Not to be confused with Butterscotch Bread Pudding because the “budino” side of this dish is an important component when you consider the thicker consistency of Italian pudding when compared to American pudding. The dessert consists of bread soaked in butter, eggs, milk, sugar and cinnamon – baked; then topped with a sweet and salty butterscotch budino drizzled with a light caramel sauce. Whether you serve it with ice cream or whipped cream (or both), it’s a win.

Where’d It Come From?

The Butterscotch Budino Bread Pudding unites the best of European desserts from England and Italy. Butterscotch budino first triggered my fancy at Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles. After inhaling an Italian meatballs appetizer with garlic bread and a fennel sausage pizza, it seemed wrong to end dinner with a calorie count of less than 5000. And so I went for dessert. I wasn’t as big of a fan of the rosemary cookie on the side but the budino was heaven in a shot glass – creamy, sweet, salty and brilliant.

My love for bread pudding on the other hand cannot be traced. I order it every chance I get and I don’t know that I’ve ever had a bad bread pudding in my life. I loved them all equally, similar to my distribution of affection for my fur-children.

Want to dig deeper into the roots of these dishes? Check out our Food History 101 Blog!

– Click here to learn about the origin of Butterscotch Budino

– Click here to learn about the history of Bread Pudding

How’s It Made?

This is the perfect dessert for anyone who appreciates a salty touch on an otherwise sweet and rich course. The bread pudding is warm and gooey while the butterscotch budino is soft and creamy. Add a drizzle of caramel, whipped cream and touch of sea salt for the ultimate flavor combination. If you really want to go nuts, scoop a mound of ice cream on there, too!

Makes: 8 servings  | Passive prep time: 3 hours  | Active prep/cook time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

• Butterscotch Budino:

  • 1 ½ cups heavy cream

  • ½ cup packed dark brown sugar

  • ¾ cup milk

  • 2 large egg yolks

  • 1 large egg

  • ¼ cup water

  • 1 tbs dark rum

  • 2 tbs cornstarch

  • ½ tsp sea salt

  • 2 tbs unsalted butter

• Caramel Sauce:

  • 1 cup sugar

  • ¾ cup heavy cream

  • 2 tbs butter

  • ⅓ cup water

  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

• Bread Pudding

  • 6 slices of bread

  • 2 cups milk

  • ¾ cup sugar

  • 2 tbs unsalted butter

  • 2 tsp cinnamon

  • 2 tsp vanilla extract

  • 4 eggs, beaten

Instructions:

Do Butterscotch Budino ahead of time:

1. Reference the Butterscotch Budino ingredients. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, mix together brown sugar, salt, and water. Cook for about 10 minutes until the sauce is a very dark color.

2. Slowly add in the cream and milk while whisking until combined. Bring sauce to a boil and bring heat down to medium.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together egg, egg yolks and cornstarch.

4. Take a cup of the caramel mixture from the saucepan and quickly whisk it into the egg mixture. Then pour and whisk the egg mixture back into the saucepan.

5. Up the heat to bring the mixture to a boil as you continue whisking until the sauce thickens (about 2 minutes).

6. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the rum and butter.

7. Use a fine strainer to strain and remove large lumps from mixture.

8. Pour mixture into a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours (or overnight).

Remaining recipe:

1. Now reference the Bread Pudding ingredients. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Break bread into small pieces and place into a square 8x8 baking dish.

3. Melt butter and drizzle over bread.

4. In a mixing bowl, beat together remaining bread pudding ingredients. Pour over bread and use a fork to lightly push and submerge the bread in the egg mixture.

5. Bake for 45 minutes

6. While the bread pudding is baking, make the caramel sauce. Add sugar to the bottom of a saucepan and make sure there is a flat, even layer.

7. Add water to fully soak the sugar.

8. Heat on medium and cook until the sugar turns clear.

9. Increase heat to medium-high and cook until caramel is a yellowish-orange color. If you like more of the burnt flavor of caramel, you can cook it until it’s a tad darker. Notice my caramel sauce was very light. It’s delicious either way!

10. Turn heat off and add the heavy cream right away.

11. Stir in butter until the sauce is smooth. Then stir in the vanilla extract.

12. Allow caramel to cool to room temperature.

13. Once bread pudding is done baking, remove it from the oven. Let it cool off slightly but serve while still warm with a large mound of butterscotch budino on top, a drizzle of caramel sauce, whipped cream and/or ice cream (optional) and a sprinkle of sea salt.