How To Make Strawberry White Chocolate Bread Pudding

It is entirely forgivable if you think of bread pudding as a winter dessert. It can be dense and rich. But I'm here to tell you that it also makes a fantastic summer dessert. This Strawberry White Chocolate Bread Pudding is the perfect dessert for a beautiful summer day. The combination of strawberries and white chocolate tastes like pure sunshine. Now, don't you want to eat sunshine? I know I do.

The Base

The base of this Strawberry White Chocolate Bread Pudding is a perfect base for any bread pudding. You could substitute the strawberries in this recipe for blueberries, or replace the strawberries and white chocolate for bananas and dark chocolate. The point is that when you master this recipe, you are learning to make bread pudding, period. So you can use this recipe to create your own by adding new combinations of ingredients.

The base is four eggs, a half-cup each of whole milk and whipping cream, then three-quarters of a cup of sugar. Mix this all together. It is essentially a simple custard base, and understanding how custards work is one of the basics of so many desserts.

Once you understand a custard, sabayon is its stovetop cousin. My simple sabayon walks through it.

The Bread

You can't have bread pudding without bread. Shocker, I know. Ideally, a lovely brioche is a perfect bread for bread pudding. However, I am using a basic gluten-free bread. You can use whatever bread you would like. The only recommendation I will make is not to use a bread with too strong a crust, as the crust won't soften that much. Use four cups of bread in total.

It is best to use either stale bread or to toast the bread before adding it into the egg mixture. Toasting the bread or using stale bread will help the bread keep its structure. So, rather than just being one solid mass of soggy bread, the bread pudding will have texture. You don't have to toast the bread or use stale bread, but I do recommend it.

Add the bread to the egg mixture, press it down and let it sit for about five minutes. You want the bread to absorb as much of the egg mixture as possible. As the bread pudding cooks, all that egg mixture in the bread will turn into a custard. Sounds good, doesn't it?

The Strawberries and White Chocolate

In total, use one cup of sliced strawberries. Keep that ratio in mind: if you are adding fruit to a bread pudding, go for a four-to-one ratio of bread to fruit. If you add more fruit than that, the juices that escape when cooking may water down the custard, ruining your bread pudding.

Along with the strawberries, add in three ounces of chopped up white chocolate. You can add more chocolate if you'd like, but I found that three ounces was the perfect amount. If you love combining fruit with chocolate in desserts, you might also enjoy my strawberry shortcake recipe. And if you have leftover white chocolate chips, this white chocolate fudge only takes two ingredients.

Mix It and Bake It

With all of the ingredients in the bowl, and the bread finished soaking, mix it all up and pour it into a parchment-lined nine-inch pan. I used a little roasting pan from IKEA. You can use a nine-inch cake pan, or even put this in a lined muffin tin. I'll leave that up to you. Bake the bread pudding at 350°F for twenty-five minutes. If you make this in muffin tins, it will take about twenty minutes to bake.

Some people swear by baking their bread pudding in a water bath, but I don't find it needs it. I've had no issues baking this bread pudding without a water bath. If you do want to cook it that way, go ahead -- it won't hurt anything, but it may extend the baking time by ten minutes or so.

Checking for Doneness

Check the doneness of the bread pudding by giving the pan a little shake. If the whole thing wobbles a bit, it is probably done. If the centre kind of waves, it's not done. You can also check it by sticking a knife in the centre -- like a cake, it should come out clean. Once the bread pudding is baked, let it cool for five to ten minutes before digging in.

Serving the Bread Pudding

You can serve your Strawberry White Chocolate Bread Pudding however you'd like, but I found it didn't really need anything. To make the plate pretty, I grated some white chocolate onto it before putting the bread pudding down, and I garnished it with a fresh strawberry -- that was it. I don't think this needs a sauce, whipped cream, or ice cream. It is excellent on its own.

Even though I think that you should make this recipe (see the full recipe below), I think it is even more valuable as a base recipe that you can adapt. Swap the strawberries for blueberries, raspberries, or even peaches. Try dark chocolate instead of white. The possibilities are endless, and learning to work with a simple foundation like this is what home cooking is all about. I'd love to see what kind of unusual combinations you come up with.

If you have strawberries left over, this strawberry trifle is the obvious next move.

Recipe