Pumpkin Bread Pudding With Vanilla Butter Sauce

2Bleu's Note:

This recipe comes from www.McCormick.com Make as directed or pour into ramekins for individual servings. Pumkin lovers, this is 5-star all the way! If you like this one from McCormick, you'll enjoy Pumpkin Cake Roll With Cream Cheese Filling also. :)

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 16

• 2 ½ cups milk
• ¾ cup sugar
• 6 ounces white baking chocolate , cut into chunks
• ¼ cup butter
• 4 eggs
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 8 cups cubed Italian bread
• 1 cup dried cherries (I use Sunmaid fruit bits)
• 1 cup chopped pecans , divided

Vanilla Butter Sauce

• ½ cup heavy cream
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F Mix milk, sugar, white chocolate and butter in large microwavable bowl. Microwave on HIGH 4 minutes or until butter is melted, stirring after 2 minutes. Stir until white chocolate is completely melted. Set aside.
2. Beat eggs, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add white chocolate mixture; stir until well blended. Add bread cubes, cherries and 1/2 cup of the pecans; stir until well coated. Spread evenly in greased 13x9-inch baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining pecans.
3. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm with warm Vanilla Butter Sauce.
4. Vanilla Butter Sauce: Mix all sauce ingredients EXCEPT vanilla extract in medium saucepan. Bring to boil on medium heat. Reduce heat to low; simmer 5 to 10 minutes or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla extract.

Reviews

[4Danna]

Ive made this several times for diffrent groups of people and always get great reviews.

[Cheffie M]

This is so very good! So good, in fact, that I am taking turns typing and spooning mouthfuls into my greedy mouth. The pudding alone is quite good, but it is the vanilla-butter sauce that puts it into the must-make-again-real-soon category. I did leave out the nuts because I don't like anything crunchy in my bread pudding. It's a good thing that I have a whole 13x9 pan full of this stuff (minus what I have already scarfed down), because I am sure that my husband will love this too! I highly recommend this recipe. Thanks for posting this, 2Bleu. I will surely be making this recipe a lot this fall and winter.