White Chocolate and Forest Fruits Bread and Butter Pudding.

Today I made White Chocolate and Forest Fruit Bread and Butter Pudding 


I remember the very first thing I made by myself when I was 8 was Bread and Butter Pudding. I saw some chef make it on tv and decided to make it from memory. I'm pretty sure that was the day I fell in love with baking. I'll never forget the look on my fathers face as he ate this dessert his child just made, and so began my love of feeding people. Even to this day I have very fond memories of making this dish. My recipe has developed over the years, I now have about twelve different Bread and Butter Pudding Recipes that I chop and change depending on who I'm making it for and for what occasion. The one I made today is probably my favourite, well definitely in my top three.

The one I made today doesn't actually use bread, so it's kinda of like my cheat bread and butter pudding like another recipe of mine using Brioche. This recipe uses Croissants as a substitute for the bread. The Croissants give you a light and almost fluffy pudding, which really lightens a normally stodgy, filling dessert. The normal add-in in a Bread and Butter Pudding are raisins or more recently dried apricot. I like to go another way with this dessert in particular and pimp it out with creamy White Chocolate and Forest Fruits. The White Chocolate melts into the custard creating an irresistible sweet and creamy sauce while the mixed berries pack a tangy punch,

Ingredients:

• 6/8 Croissants
• 50g Butter
• 3 Egg Yolks
• 150g Caster Sugar
• 100g White Chocolate
• 100g Mixed Berries
• 400mls Milk
• 40g Granulated Sugar - To Sprinkle

Instructions:

To Make The Custard:

1. Pour the milk into a saucepan and heat at a medium temperature until it's just below boiling point. 

2.  Separate the three eggs and put the egg yolks into a glass bowl - You can save the Egg Whites to make meringues or an Egg White Omelet. Whisk in the Caster Sugar until it's all incorporated.

3. When the milk is heated pour half of it into the Egg and Sugar mixture while stirring constantly. When the Milk is stirred through you can them pour the Sugar and Egg mixture into the other half of the milk in the pan and stir constantly for 3-4 minutes it will start to look frothy on top - that's how you know it's ready.

For the Pudding:

4. Cut all the Croissants in half and lightly butter each half, line them up in a oven proof dish, I normally line them up crust side up as it looks prettier.

5. Cut up the White Chocolate into chunks, I like to leave the pieces quite large so they melt and you get little pockets of White Chocolate Sauce within the pudding. 

6. Sprinkle the White Chocolate Chunks all over the Croissants, I normally push a few of the chunks down to the bottom so they're all evenly dispersed. 

7. Then add on your mixed berries of choice. I like to use Forest Fruits as it's a great combination of Raspberries, Cherries, Strawberries and Blueberries.

8. When you have all your White Chocolate and Forest Fruits added in you can then pour in the Custard you've made, the custard should fill up to top. You can leave the croissants sit in the custard for some time so they soak up all the custard-y goodness. I normally make this dessert before I start making dinner so it has plenty of time to soak up. 

9. Put the Oven proof dish into a baking tray and fill the baking tray with some boiling water, this steam helps to cook and set the bottom of the custard. Before you place in the oven sprinkle the top of the pudding with Granulated Sugar. 

10. Cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 180°C until the top of the Pudding is golden brown and crispy and the custard has set. I normally serve this dish with a scoop of Vanilla Ice-cream  and dusted with Icing Sugar.

“Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.”