Bread pudding has been traced the 11th and 12th centuries in England, as people baked this treat to use up leftover bread. Even in those times they were thinking about not wasting food! That said, bread puddings are notoriously easy to put together and fit right in the Seriously Simple cooking philosophy.

Today, you can find bread puddings speckled with black or white truffles and exotic cheeses for savory versions and sweet white chocolate and colorful red and blue berries for dessert versions. The creamy, comforting dessert you see here was well-tested with many tweaks.

I have tried different white chocolate varieties and recommend Valrhona, if you can find it, or Lindt. They both come in bar form. What is white chocolate? It is pale ivory in color and is made from cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids and sometimes vanilla. There are no cocoa solids, which are found in other types of chocolate, such as milk chocolate and dark chocolate.

Do not use the chocolate chips that say white chips. They have palm oil as an ingredient and do not taste like white chocolate. They contain little or no cocoa butter. Somehow, along the way, American manufacturers changed the formula using less cocoa butter so they no longer can call the chips white chocolate.

This bread pudding with raspberries and blueberries may be my best bread pudding yet. Colorful in red, white and blue, this is not only beyond delicious but also patriotic. Sometimes I serve this with blueberry or raspberry sauce, but that’s up to you. A tuft of freshly whipped cream on top is always appreciated. You can serve this warm or at room temp. Don’t expect any leftovers; but if you are lucky and have some leftover, it’s wonderful cold for breakfast.

White Chocolate Bread Pudding

Serves 8 to 10

Baking spray

1 pound day-old challah or brioche cut into 1-inch cubes (cubes should be dried out)

1 1/2 cups raspberries

...continued