White Chocolate Bread Pudding with Chocolate Sauce

Ingredients

8 oz French bread cut into 1 inch pieces
3 1/2 cups whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
10 oz. good quality white chocolate Lindt or Baker's coarsely chopped
7 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
fresh fruit optional about 2 cups I used fresh raspberries
8 oz white or dark chocolate I like dark

Instructions

For the Pudding:

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Arrange bread cubes on baking sheet. Bake until light golden and dry, about 10 minutes. Transfer to rack to cool, increase oven temp to 350 degrees.
Combine 3 cups whipping cream, 1 cup milk and 1/2 cup sugar in heavy large saucepan. Bring to simmer over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Add 10 oz. white chocolate ( about 1 3/4 cups) and stir until melted and smooth. Let cool slightly. Whisk yolks and eggs in large bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in warm chocolate mixture.
Place bread cubes and fruit (if using) in greased 2 quart glass baking dish. Add half of chocolate mixture. Press bread cubes into chocolate mixture. Let stand 15 minutes. Gently mix in remaining chocolate mixture. Cover dish with foil.
Bake pudding 45 minutes. Uncover and bake until top is golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer pudding to a rack to cool slightly. Can be prepared 1 day ahead. If storing for serving later-cover with foil and refrigerate. Re-warm covered pudding in 350 degree over for 30 minutes before serving.

For the Sauce:

Bring remaining 1/2 cup cream to simmer in heavy saucepan. Remove saucepan from heat. Add remaining 8 oz chocolate and stir until melted and smooth.
Serve pudding warm with chocolate sauce.

Recipe Notes

-Many bread pudding recipes use Challah or Croissants. You may use any type of bread you like. Bread pudding was originally created to use up leftover bread that had gone stale. -I like the addition of fresh fruit, especially raspberries. I added a few fresh bananas, but didn't like the way they looked after baking. Next time, I'll saute them in a little butter before adding to the pudding. Or maybe just tossing with a little lemon juice would help their appearance.