Bread Pudding with Chocolate Raspberry Orange Ganache

So I made an Easter bread for my monthly Daring Baker’s challenge but I’m not allowed to post it yet. But I did make this bread pudding with some of the bread and I couldn’t resist putting this recipe and the pictures up! This is so dangerous for me to have in the fridge right now, I can’t stop eating it every-time I walk through the kitchen.

The bread I used is a Bulgarian Easter bread which is similar in body to a challah bread. It is an eggy bread that has lemon zest and rum-soaked raisin in it and slivered almonds studded over the top so you’d better believe it makes an excellent bread pudding! Imagine that bread, cut into cubes, soaked in a vanilla-egg-milk mixture, sprinkled with slivered almonds and baked until just set. Soft and gooey and glorious. But wait! It gets better! There is a layer of chocolate and raspberry-orange preserves in the center! And just when you thought you couldn’t take anymore… warm raspberry-orange chocolate ganache drizzled down over the top! Yea, this is comfort food at it’s finest.

You can use any bread you like. My dad actually inspired me to put this together because he served an AMAZING bread pudding as Easter dessert but he used a homemade sourdough bread. The base recipe for this came from Ree Drummond, a.k.a. the “Pioneer Woman”, and she calls for sourdough in her original recipe. I browsed through some other recipes but mostly I still liked hers best! I upped the egg-factor a bit for more richness, used vanilla bean paste because I love that speckled look, and added the layer of chocolate and preserves in the middle. You layer half of your bead cubes in a buttered casserole dish, sprinkle some chocolate (chips or chopped) over it and dollop some preserves, layer the remaining bread, and pour a milk-egg mixture down over all of it. I thought about making a straight-chocolate ganache to put over the pudding after baking but decided it would be fun to add some of the same preserves used in the pudding to the sauce to really tie it together. And a shot of spiced rum. You know, because there is rum in the raisins in the bread. Actually, I just like the warmth you get from the rum. It really takes the coziness of this dessert to the next level but you can omit it if you prefer. Ree Drummond makes a whiskey sauce in her original recipe, my dad make a Kohlua sauce for his, so the options are only limited by your imagination! Even without a sauce, this bread pudding is a winner.

And like I said before, it’s even good spoonful-by-spoonful cold from the fridge…

***PRINTABLE RECIPE (BREAD PUDDING PDF)***

Bread Pudding

(Adapted from “The Best Bread Pudding” by The Pioneer Woman)

Ingredients for the Bread Pudding:

1 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened, for greasing your baking dish
3 eggs
3 tbsp. melted unsalted butter
2 tbsp. vanilla bean paste (may substitute pure vanilla extract)
2 ½ cups whole milk or half and half
2 cups granulated sugar
Pinch of fine kosher or sea salt
½ cup bittersweet chocolate chips
¼ cup raspberry preserves, or preserves of your choice
3 ½ to 5 cups day old (or slightly stale) challah bread, sourdough bread or whatever you like (as long as it has some body to it), cut into 1 inch cubes
1/3 cup slivered almonds

Ingredients for the Raspberry Chocolate Ganache:

½ cup heavy cream
3 tbsp. raspberry preserves (or whatever you used in the bread pudding)
4 ounces of chopped bittersweet chocolate (the same chocolate you used in the bread pudding preferably)
1-2 tsp. of dark rum, optional

Directions for the Bread Pudding:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees with rack in the center position
Grease a 6 cup/9-inch (approximately) baking dish with the softened butter
Beat together eggs, butter, vanilla, and milk in a large bowl
Add sugar and a pinch of salt and mix until sugar is dissolved

Arrange half of the bread cubes tightly in the bottom of the buttered baking dish

Scatter the chocolate chips and dollop the preserves over the bread cubes

Layer the remaining bread cubes over the “filling”
Pour the egg mixture over the bread

Sprinkle almonds all over and bake for 55 to 70 minutes, or until crust is golden brown all over the top and the edges look puffy and set

Directions for the Sauce:

Heat the heavy cream with preserves in a small, heavy-bottomed sauce-pan over medium low heat, whisking to incorporate frequently, until just simmering
Remove from heat, add chocolate and allow to sit for 5 minutes