Turn Day-Old Bread Into White Chocolate and Raspberry Bread Pudding

If you’ve ever wondered what to do with excess bread in your kitchen you have to try my White Chocolate and Raspberry Bread Pudding recipe! You can use any hard bread you have on hand but I recommend croissants for the richest flavor. Combined with a little bit of dark rum for a lightly caramelized flavor and fresh raspberries for a pop of sweetness there is a lot to love in this dessert.

Yields: 8 Servings

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
4 plain day-old croissants, cut into 1 inch cubes
3 cups heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
4 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 cup dark rum
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 pint fresh raspberries
4 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
Whipped cream for serving (optional)

Instructions:

Pour cream in a medium saucepan. Use the back of a paring knife to scrape the vanilla seeds from the bean and add both to the cream. Stir in the white chocolate. Heat over medium low heat, stirring often, until the white chocolate is melted, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside.
In a small saucepan, heat the rum, sugar and 1/4 cup of water over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the sugar is dissolved, about 10 minutes. Place the raspberries in a medium bowl and pour the rum syrup over the berries. Gently stir to combine.
Preheat skillet to medium heat and spread the croissant cubes out in an even layer in the bottom of a baking dish. Cover the croissant cubes with the rum-soaked raspberries and syrup.
Whisk together the eggs and egg yolks in a large bowl. Remove the vanilla bean from the white chocolate mixture and then whisk about 1 cup of the white chocolate mixture into the eggs. Once the bottom of the bowl is warm (you may need to add 1/2 to 1 cup more of the white chocolate mixture to sufficiently temper the eggs so they don’t curdle), whisk in the remaining white chocolate mixture. Use a rubber spatula to scrape this mixture evenly over the raspberries and croissant cubes.
Place the pan with the bread pudding in the skillet. Fill the skillet with warm water to reach half way up the sides of the baking dish. Cook for about 20 minutes, or until the center of the pudding is set and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the skillet and cool completely. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream, if using.