Hi everyone! O.K., as promised, I am sending the incredible bread pudding recipe to you all. I cannot describe this dessert to you except to say that it is truly sublime.
As mentioned in a previous post, a new friend, Glenn Fishkin, made this to help create a divine dinner party the night before my friends’ son’s Bar mitzvah in NC. I LOVED how the community got involved, sharing their fave recipes to make the weekend a success. THis recipe makes a HUGE amount so everyone will get to have some if you have a big party.
I hope you like this as much as I did! Enjoy!
P.S. What a great use of stale bread-no more guilt about throwing it out….
White Chocolate Bread Pudding:
The recipe below is for a large group, which is the best way to indulge…
2 bags of Ghirardelli white choc chips … or equal
4 French breads
¾ cup sugar (careful: this is for the 1 half of the recipe)
1.5 cups whole milk
1.5 quarts heavy cream
¾ cups egg yolks-from about 8 medium eggs
1 cup granulated sugar (for 2nd half of the recipe)
6 teaspoons vanilla extract
¼-1/2 stick melted butter to brush on top
Usual stuff: Cut the bread into cubes and let it sit overnight to get a little stale, but if you forget, no worries… it’ll be awesome anyway.
The “Proper Way” – put the white chocolate into a double boiler and melt over boiling water.
“My Way” – the PW is cool, if you have a double boiler … if not, microwave the chocolate, but you need to time it right and immediately put it into the mixture.
Mix the ¾ cups of sugar with the milk and cream in a pot and cook over medium heat … stir kinda often until the sugar is dissolved … do NOT boil.
In a separate bowl with an electric mixer or a Mixmaster (PW/MW), beat the egg yolks & sugar until they’re relatively thick. Add about 1/3 of the milk, cream, and sugar … mix that together for a minute or two and then add the rest of the mixture and continue to mix until they’re fully mixed.
Pour the above mixture into the pot and cook over medium heat. Constantly mix that with a whisk or wooden spoon w/ slates. Heat the mixture to about 180 degrees and add the white chocolate and vanilla.
Meanwhile …
Spray a large oven-safe serving dish with vegetable spray and put the bread into it. Pour that beautiful mixture of white chocolate, cream, milk, sugar, etc. over the bread. With the wooden spoon, dunk the bread making sure that all the pieces are soaked … as best as you can.
Put the dish into a water bath and place in a pre-heated 325-degree oven for 30 minutes. I use convection bake, so the baking time is a little shorter. Remove everything from the oven and brush the bread tops with melted butter … take the dish out of the water bath and put it into the oven for another 15-20 minutes.
The bread on top will be golden brown. Let it cool a bit, but it’s so good when it’s warm. If you need to reheat, put some or all of it in the oven … try to avoid the microwave.
Enjoy!
Full disclosure: This recipe has been modified from the bread pudding at a restaurant called 131 Main as seen in a cookbook by Stacey Simms.