Brioche Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 2 quart baking dish with butter, or spray with nonstick spray. My dish measures about 8x11 or so. (9x13 is too big for this in my opinion). Arrange bread cubes in baking dish to fit snug together and as evenly layered as possible.

Wisk together sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon until well combined. Pour evenly over bread in baking dish. Using the back of a spatula gently press bread down into liquid. Let sit 15-20 minutes for bread to soak up a good amount of the liquid. Press down gently once more (do not "squish").

Place in oven. Bake uncovered 45-55 minutes, or until just set in the center and top is golden (mine was 50 minutes). If edges start to brown too much you can loosely cover them with foil, but do not cover the dish completely (you'll get a soggy top).

While baking, make your caramel sauce. In a small sauce pan over medium heat wisk together brown sugar and half & half. When it starts to steam wisk in butter until melted. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes, wisking constantly so not to burn. You are looking for it to thicken slightly and turn a nice "caramel" color (it will thicken even more as it cools). Remove from heat and set aside.

When bread pudding is finished remove from oven. Drizzle caramel sauce over the top. Let cool at least 15 minutes before cutting to serve hot. Or let cool completely then cover tightly with foil. Refrigerate overnight and serve cold. This is how we like it, and frankly I find it tastes best this way!