Croissant Bread Pudding with Mixed Berry Sauce

Us Girls have to give a ton of credit to our parents for our love of cooking and baking. Our mother can throw together a meal so quickly and always has some sort of cookie or sweet ready for the grandkids when they visit. Our dad is a BBQing king and loves to make up his own marinades, which always turn out delicious. One little quirk about dad, though.... he gets tons of awesome recipes from the newspaper. Yep, you heard me right. The newspaper. He finds all kinds of gems in those pages!

This recipe is one that he found a long time ago and has tweaked it here and there. He doesn't even have the original anymore, it's that old. But it's delicious. It was my first time ever trying a bread pudding. I always thought of bread pudding as soggy, and there is nothing more than soggy bread to make me gag. Yikes.

But bread pudding made with croissants? Yes, please! This is really easy to make but it sounds (and looks... and tastes) fancy. And if you love Costco as much as we do, go get yourself a package of the butter croissants there. You get a dozen for $5.99 and these babies are just the ones you want for this recipe! And while you're there, go ahead and get yourself a hot dog. And a churro. And a years supply of ketchup. I love Costco.

Seriously, kids. Beautiful, right? This is a great brunch dish and definitely the perfect ending to your Christmas dinner. You can definitely make this all year round too (we won't judge!) and switch up the fruit that you use for a different flavor!

    

Here is your lineup. Pretty simple!

These are the croissants you want. I know some regular grocery chains sell the large butter croissants too, but you won't get a better price than Costco. Plus you'll have some extras that you can much on throughout the week (or one sitting...)

Tear them up into bite size pieces. Don't worry if they aren't the same size. Place them into your buttered dish. Hey, I didn't say this was necessarily healthy. All things in moderation!

For your egg mixture, start with the sugar....

Add in your eggs one at time. My favorite tip with eggs? Crack them one at a time into a separate bowl before you add them to your batter (or, in this case, sugar). That way if you get shell in there, you can scoop it out easily. Or if your egg happens to be bad, you won't ruin your entire batter.

Pour in the heavy cream....

And vanilla. Am I the only one who doesn't measure vanilla? A little extra never hurt anyone, right?

Mix your egg batter really well and then pour carefully over the croissant pieces, trying to cover them all. By the way, shout out to my amazing husband who actually walked away from Sunday Night Football to help out as my hand model!

After you've done this, you'll need to press the pieces down and shimmy them around until all the pieces have been covered by the batter.

Gorgeous berries! Seriously, use whatever berries you have on hand or what sounds good to you. I like mixed berries, the tartness really complements the sweetness of the croissants. Make sure the fruit is thawed though so you don't end up with a frozen blended paste (I may or may not have figured this out the hard way). Add in your sugar and lemon juice and blend well. Pour into a saucepan and, over medium heat, let it thicken slightly.

It smells amazing! I love how crusty it is on the outside and soft on the inside. Yum!

Cut each piece individually and pour warm sauce over the top. Serve with good quality vanilla ice cream and you're set!

Croissant Bread Pudding with Mixed Berry Sauce

by Girls in Aprons

8 large butter croissant (I found mine at Costco)

1 cup sugar

2 cups heavy whipping cream

8 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

4 cups frozen mixed berries, thawed (or whatever mixed fruit you want to try!)

1 cup sugar

2 Tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Tear croissants into bite size pieces and place in a buttered 9x13 dish. Combine 1 cup sugar, heavy cream, eggs, vanilla and salt and mix well. Pour over the croissants, pressing until all of the bread is covered. Let stand until the liquid is absorbed most of the way. Bake for 45 minutes or until the bread is puffed up and a knife inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.

In a blender, puree the thawed berries. Add the remaining 1 cup sugar and lemon juice. Cook in a sauce pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until thickened slightly.

Cut the bread pudding into squares and top with warm berry sauce. Serve with good quality ice cream.