You had me at White Chocolate Raspberry Croissant Pudding

You're terrible, Muriel ~ Joanie, Muriel's Wedding

I love croissant pudding! I love it for the pudding it wants to be. And I love it for the pudding it almost is. ~ Jerry Macguire kind of.

I've been a terrible blogger.  It's been almost a whole month since my last post and that is far far too long!  I apologize unreservedly and to sweeten the deal thought I might share this gorgeously decadent, utterly romantic, perfect for Valentine's Day, dessert with you my lovely readers.   Will you forgive me and be my blogger valentines? Would I have you at White Chocolate Raspberry Croissant Pudding?

Before I get on to this sinful dessert, I really wanna tell you bout the exciting stuff that's been happening in the last little bit!  I'm in my fourth year of medical school and we've started the year with a bang: an overnight stay at a marae, lectures galore and finally, finally, this week we've gotten to get up close and personal with some real life patients.   We even had a tutorial with a big wig vascular surgeon and to impress him I decided to get completely starstruck, forget all of my anatomy and completely stuff up taking a blood pressure.  Yip, I was awesome.  Not.  Still, as terrible as I was, it was still an awe inspiring, humbling and incredible experience.  Gimme more!!!

Right on to the dessert...

I first had this dessert at a party for a good friend of ours, Nick.  The lovely Ariane made it for his going away bash and it was amazing.  This dessert will complete you.

Ok, ok cheesy Jerry Macguire quotes aside, this dessert is rich, creamy and amazingly wicked.  It's like a pimped out bread and butter pudding: croissants, cream, white chocolate with raspberries and orange zest...it's definitely not for the faint hearted but is great for a crowd and as an extra special treat for those extra special occasions.  And like all good recipes, is so easy to bash together you could whip it up with one hand tied behind your back a.k.a. one hand with a glass of wine in it.

I used all cream and the full amount of sugar but next time I think I'll try going half milk and cream and cut down on the sugar.  The raspberries and orange zest is a gorgeous tart contrast to the creamy sweetness but it was still pretty rich and the white chocolate was plenty sweet enough so hopefully with a few tweaks this dessert can be just as delicious while being a little less unforgiving on the waistline.

Having said that if you have a sweetheart with a sweettooth go ahead and try it out with the full amount of sugar.  You could also try dark/bittersweet chocolate to mix things up a little or glam it up with some bourbon, coz let's face it, everything's better with bourbon.

White Chocolate Raspberry Croissant Pudding

Serves 6-8

8 crossiants, cut in half horizontally
300 g raspberries (frozen or fresh) (~ 1 cup)
250 g white chocolate, chopped finely
1/4 cup caster sugar (NB: Think I would add less next time may be only 2 Tbsp)
1 Tablespoon flour
4 egg
zest from 1 large orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
500ml (2 cups) full cream (NB: Next time I'm going to try half and half to make it a little less sinful)
icing sugar to decorate

1. Preheat oven to 170oC. Butter a 23cm square baking dish. Arrange the bottom halves of the croissants in a layer at the bottom of the dish. You may need to overlap to get them to fit.  Top with half the raspberries and white chocolate.  Arrange the tops of the croissants on top. Sprinkle the rest of the raspberries and chocolate over the top.  Sprinkle zest all over.

2. Whisk together the sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla and cream.  Pour over the croissants evenly.  Allow to sit for at least 10 minutes to soak through (reckon the longer the better to get the croissants to soak up all that lovely custardy liquid).

3. Bake at 170oC for 35-45 minutes keeping an eye at the end for browning (cover with foil if getting to brown too early -  I found that mine could've done with a little longer to fully set in the bottom).  Serve hot with yoghurt and love.