This Raspberry Bread & Butter Pudding with White Chocolate Chips recipe is wonderful twist on a classic hot British dessert. The fresh raspberries pair beautifully with the creamy custard bread pudding. This family favourite is easy to make in advance and is perfect when you want a lighter pudding with fresh flavours. So all that remains is to decide on custard, cream or ice cream?
This is such a brilliant dessert and I can’t rave about it more. The lovely raspberry flavour mixed with the creamy custard and sweet white chocolate is heaven on earth. In the best pudding form.
Bread and butter pudding is so easy to make and is a great way to use up bread which is drying out and not great to eat as it is. Fresh bread of course also works. I tend to like using it as the way to make sure we don’t waste any bread.
For this absolutely incredible pudding I wanted to combine by favourite flavour duo – raspberries and white chocolate. They really are wonderful together.
Bread and butter pudding is as simple as buttering bread, arranging it and pouring custard over the top. Then you add fruit and pop it in the oven to bake. The bread absorbs the custard and it is so good.
What is the difference between bread budding and bread and butter pudding?
Did you realise there was a difference?!
Bread pudding is more common in the US and also in more traditional UK bakeries. It is generally made from cubes of stale bread, soaked in a custard type sauce and baked. Which does sound similar to bread and butter pudding except that it is much denser. Once cooled it can be sliced into cubes.
Bread and butter pudding is a classic British pudding (what we call dessert) which usually leaves the slices of bread as slices or triangles which are generously buttered, layered, soaked in more custard and then baked.
Both versions often contain fruit, nuts and occasionally alcohol. Bread pudding is especially popular in New Orleans where it is often served with a bourbon sauce – similar to a creme anglaise / custard.
Bread and butter pudding is much softer than bread pudding and is almost always eaten hot.
What bread is best to use for Bread and Butter Pudding?
Most of time for bread and butter pudding I use a medium cut “best of both” or 50/50 loaf from Hovis. I like this bread as it’s medium size absorbs a great amount of the mix but it’s still thin enough to cook quickly.
But the joy of this recipe is that you can really use any bread you have. Although I would recommend sticking to a white or nearly white bread as wholemeal or granary adds an unwelcome extra flavour.
Bread and butter pudding works really well with slightly stale bread so if you have some that’s not as fresh as you’d like but still usable, then try turning it into this delicious pudding.
Other things you can make bread and butter pudding with including croissants – they work a treat! The chocolate filled ones also are dreamily good. Almond croissants with their frangipane centres are also pretty tasty.
If you are a brioche fan then I can recommend using them. Chocolate chip brioche loaves or buns work incredibly well too!
Are Fresh or Frozen Raspberries Better?
I do love fresh raspberries and this is what I usually use in this recipe.
But frozen raspberries will also work well. You won’t need to defrost them before adding to the pudding – just throw them straight in.
How to Make Raspberry Butter Pudding
You can find the full printable recipe card with instructions and ingredient quantities below.
I love building up the layers!
The first layer is buttered bread with the crusts removed. They’re arranged with the points up so the tops catch and toast in the oven.
Next are the raspberries. I pop a few in between the layers so they keep the slices up. Also it allows for there to be a good amount of berries soaked in the custard too.
The third layer is the rich custard. It’s made with cream, milk, eggs and vanilla but not thickened once mixed together. The custard is poured onto the bread and allowed to soak in before it goes into the oven.
The final layer is white chocolate chips. White chocolate is a match made in heaven with raspberries and adds and extra decadent layer and another texture.
What to Serve with Bread and Butter Pudding?
The classic question we are always asked in pubs and restaurants when ordering dessert is custard, cream or ice cream? And any of them will be perfect served with bread and butter pudding?
This recipe is usually served warm and many people love to have custard served with a hot pudding. But there is already a lot of custard in the pudding recipe itself so I like to serve it with a really luscious cream. My family are obsessed with buying flavoured creams, especially at Christmas time so I love to try versions like brandy cream or cointreau cream.
For something a little lighter and more summery, regular double or single (light) cream are great options. And of course ice cream is amazing too. Keeping with the theme, a raspberry ripple or good quality vanilla would be my go-to options.
Bread and Butter Pudding Variations
There are so many ways you can create variations on a classic bread and butter pudding. You can add different fruit including strawberries which are great if chopped up and added.
Raspberries on their own are beautiful. Blackberries can be a tart adjustment to the fruitiness of the finished pudding. When in season I have used plums. I chop them up into small chunks and scatter through and over the bread. The flavour is wonderful.
Check out some of my other delicious bread and butter pudding recipes for more inspiration!
Lemon and raspberry bread and butter pudding
If you want to make this recipe less sweet and add a citrus twist, you can easily leave out the white chocolate and add lemon zest instead.
In the recipe remove the white chocolate. Add the zest of one lemon to the custard just as you poor it over bread. You can even sprinkle some more zest over just before you bake to give the final pudding a beautiful lemon zest dusting.
Or Add Even more white chocolate!
When the Raspberry Bread and Butter Pudding is hot out of the oven, I sometimes melt some more white chocolate and spread it thickly over the top.
This was just a random idea I had one time as I had some white chocolate left but it worked a treat.
It definitely makes the pudding a lot sweeter so if you have an extra sweet tooth I would recommend it. If you want it more balanced, just stick to the white chocolate is already in the recipe.
Can you make bread and butter pudding in advance?
Absolutely. You want to leave the custard to soak in for a while but you can easily make it in the morning to be baked later on in the afternoon. Or even the day before.
Once you’ve made it, wrap it in silver foil or cling film (saran wrap) and leave it to soak somewhere cool. If it’s only being left to soak for an hour or so, I tend to just leave it wrapped in a cool part of the kitchen.
If you need to put it in the fridge, make sure to take it out of the fridge 1 hour before you need it so it warms up to room temperature. Bake as normal from there.
How long will leftover bread and butter pudding keep for?
This bread and butter pudding will last for a few days if kept properly chilled in the fridge. It is best to wrap it well in cling film or if you want to move it into a smaller dish, use an airtight container.
You can reheat cold pudding in the microwave in short 20 second bursts until pipping hot.
If you are enjoying it reheated I would definitely recommend a dollop of cream or scoop of ice cream.
Pin this Raspberry Bread and Butter Pudding with White Chocolate Recipe for later
Raspberry Bread and Butter Pudding
Equipment
- medium oven proof dish
Ingredients
- 300 ml full fat milk
- 300 ml double cream / heavy cream
- 1 vanilla pod
- 3 eggs medium
- 1 egg yolk medium
- 3 tbsp caster sugar / superfine sugar
- 400 g medium sliced bread around 9 slices, I used Hovis best of both
- 9 tsp salted butter softened plus extra for greasing
- 200 g fresh raspberries
- 100 g white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Grease a medium ovenproof dish approximately. I used melted butter and a pastry brush to paint it on.
- Butter the bread on each side. Cut the crusts off the bread slices and cut diagonally to make triangles.
- Layer the triangles in the dish with the points upwards.
- Scatter the raspberries in the dish. Poke some in between the bread slices.
- To make the custard, place the whole milk milk, cream and vanilla pod with its seeds scraped out together in a saucepan. Place on a medium heat and keep stirring as it comes up to a boil.
- Take it off the heat before it boils. Set aside to allow to cool slightly.
- In a bowl whisk the eggs and extra yolk with the caster sugar.
- Slowly pour the warm milk and cream mixture over the eggs, stirring constantly until smooth.
- Remove the vanilla pod from the custard and pour the warm mix over the buttered bread and raspberries.
- Sprinkle the white chocolate chips over the top.
- Heat oven to 180C (160C fan).
- Leave the custard to soak into the bread while the oven warms – around 10 mins.
- Bake for 20-25 mins until golden brown. I like the top edges to be a little toastie
- Serve straight away. Keep any left overs in the fridge and eat within a few days.
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that the nutrition information provided above is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
Wow this pudding is so flavorful! And the texture is perfectly soft and fluffy 🙂
That is brilliant feedback. Thank you!
This is such a unique spin on a British classic cuisine. I love the fact that you have used white chocolate in place of raisins. I don’t really care of raisins (shhh don’t tell anyone that I said that) so this is a win win for me.
A woman after my own heart. White chocolate definitely is a good replacement for raisins.
Oh boy doesn’t this look pretty!! Those white chocolate chips and raspberries pop. This would be the best weekend breakfast ever and I am looking forward to whipping it up. Cheers
Oh wow I’ve never thought about having it for brunch but it would be wonderful!
Pure heaven! The combination of raspberries and white chocolate is so good!
Thank you Mary
If im honest I tend to think you shouldn’t mess with a trad bread and butter pudding but I think this looks so good and raspberries and white chcolate are such a great combo in this case i will make an exception. It looks delicious. Thank you for sharing with #CookBlogShare
Oh that is praise! Thank you so much.
How incredibly delicious! This looks positively mouth watering. Yum!
Oh you should have smelled it baking!
I adore raspberries and white chocolate but not combined them with a bear pudding and it looks utterly lush!
They are such a good combo! Thank you Kavey
This sounds amazing! Perfect for this time of year when summer berries are coming into season but it’s still chilly enough to want a hot pudding.
I agree! sunny but oven bakes are still very welcome.