Nordstroms Bread Pudding

If you have never been to Nordstrom's grill....and never tried their Raspberry Bread Pudding....I'm here to tell you, I've just come to save your life!  this may look hard but it really isn't.  Lots of steps but it is perfection. (and watch out...if you are transporting this to a dinner party...and you've worked really hard on this dessert...and your husband drives too fast around a curve....and the pudding lands on the car floor.  A fun night out should NEVER start that way!)

Nordstom's Chocolate Raspberry Bread Pudding

Bread pudding ingredients
4 cups heavy whipping cream
2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
3 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
6 large eggs, plus
12 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 loaf day old French baguette, 24-inch cut into 1/2-inch inch slices (artisan bread works well too!)


Raspberry Sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons  orange zest
2 cups fresh raspberries (thawed) or 2 cups frozen raspberries (thawed)

White Chocolate Sauce
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup white chocolate chips
Prepping the pudding
5 tablespoons unsalted butter (I never have unsalted butter on hand so I used regular)

Directions:
Prep Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 2 hrs

1 Bread pudding:
2 Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9"X12"X2" baking pan including the sides. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper.
3 Combine cream, sugar, milk in saucepan over medium heat. Stir until hot. Add chocolate morsels and stir until chocolate is melted. Set aside so it can cool slightly.
4 Whisk eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla. Gradually pour the cream mixture into the egg mixture and whisk until smooth. Be careful that the cream mixture isn't too hot or the eggs will curdle. Tempering the eggs is very useful in this step.
5 Lay about half of the bread slices in the baking pan and pour about half of the cream mixture, allowing it to soak up the liquid. Next, layer the remaining bread slices on top and pour more mixture over it. You might need to press down the bread on top to let it soak up some of that liquid. Be careful that you don't layer too much, since it does rise quite a bit in the oven. I usually stop layering once it hits right at the top of the pan.
6 Cover the pan with foil and bake for 1 hour. While it's baking, this is a good time to get started on those sauces!
7 After that 1st hour, remove the foil and bake uncovered until it's no longer liquid in the center and the top should be golden brown.

8 Raspberry Sauce:.
9 Combine water, sugar, and orange zest in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir until syrupy.
10 Add raspberries and cook on low heat stirring occasionally until the fruit falls apart. Strain out the seeds.

11 White Chocolate Sauce:
12 Heat heavy cream in saucepan over medium heat until hot.
13 Stir in white chocolate morsels until melted. Set aside to cool slightly.


14 Prepping the Bread Pudding:
15 By individual slices, place a slice(s) on a cookie sheet and brush each piece with the melted sweet cream butter, including the sides (don't worry about the bottom of the slice).
16 Bake in oven for about 12-15 minutes. This will create a crisp "seared" outside which is very delicious.
17 Once the bread pudding is ready, by individual slices, place on a serving plate and drizzle with the white chocolate sauce and droplets of raspberry sauce. Enjoy!