Pudin de Pan Cubano

Jamie Silva’s pudin de pan sets a brioche-and-milk custard over its own caramel. Rum-soaked raisins and supplied sliced almonds join the bread mixture, which is baked in a water bath and chilled before inversion.

Raisins soak for a few minutes with the same two tablespoons of spiced rum in a small bowl. Four whole eggs are whisked in a large mixing bowl with evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, ground cinnamon and the listed nutmeg. Supplied torn brioche is gently pressed into the custard so it soaks evenly.

The oven is preheated to 350°F. White sugar cooks in the selected saucepan over medium heat with gentle stirring until it melts and becomes amber. It is poured immediately into the pudding’s baking dish, swirled over the bottom and left to set.

The same raisins and all their rum are folded into the custard with the supplied sliced almonds. A ladle transfers the mixture over the set caramel. That dish sits inside a larger baking dish, which receives hot water halfway up the pudding dish’s sides. The pudding bakes for one hour and forty minutes, with further ten-minute increments if its toothpick test is not yet clean.

The whole pudding cools completely, then goes into the refrigerator for at least an hour. A knife runs around its edges and the pudding is inverted onto a serving plate. Its chilled custard, caramel surface, rum raisins and almond slices remain together in the finished dessert.