delicious dish

One of my goals for 2008 is to blog more. Silly goal, I know, but I think that if I had a weekly or so "special edition," I'd be more apt to post at least once per week. As noted by the picture many of you may recognize, this week I'll begin my Delicious Dish series - each week I'm planning to post a recipe that I've tasted and given my stamp of approval. Some will be low fat/low cal and others will be sinful, but all will be yummy to me. For those that I've borrowed from a recipe book or magazine or website, I'll give you that, too. I make no guarantees on how long this series will last, but enjoy it while you can.

I had this dessert on Christmas Eve at kind-of-cousin-in-law Peggy Alexander's house. I'm a huge fan of the squishy sweet, and this recipe is killer. Kell loved it so much that he asked his mom to get the recipe from Peggy and we made it this weekend. It's not nearly as hard as it looks and is really impressive - great for dinner parties or a special night in. Plus, most of the ingredients you probably have in your kitchen already. Give it a try!

Peggy's White Chocolate Blueberry Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

1 loaf French bread (Don’t buy the sliced bread – just get the bread in the grocery store deli. I ended up not even using a whole loaf)
2 eggs (I actually used Egg Beaters egg substitute, and it worked really well)
2 and ½ cups whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup sugar
5 oz. white chocolate chips
1 cup fresh blueberries (I used fresh, and this time of year, they were really expensive. Peggy said canned ones work, too.)
1 oz. Amaretto (optional)
1 cup sugar
1 and ½ teaspoon cornstarch
1 cup whipping cream
¼ cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup whiskey (I just used about 1/2 oz.; it's optional, too)

Instructions:

Tear French bread (including crust) into 1 and ½ inch pieces until you get 4 or 5 cups of bread cubes. Combine above remaining ingredients and pour over bread. Soak overnight. This step could also be done in the morning if you want to serve at night.

Next day:
Butter a casserole dish. Peggy said it is better to use a shallow dish rather than a deep dish. Pour French bread mixture into this dish and add the chocolate chips, blueberries, and Amaretto. Slightly stir. Place this dish into a pan that has 1 or 2 inches of water. Bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. It's done when the top is slightly browned.

Sauce:
Place sugar and cornstarch into a double boiler. Add cream gradually and heat slowly until dry ingredients are completely dissolved. Add butter and cook until thick (don't hurry this step - it may take a while). Add vanilla (and whiskey if desired). Pour over baked pudding. I like to eat it when it's right out of the oven.

This would also be great with vanilla ice cream. If you do try this, please let me know what you think! I'd love to know if you liked it as much as Kell and I did. Oooo, and it would be GREAT if you're cooking on Valentine's Day for your sweetie!

Enjoy.