White Chocolate Bread Pudding

The best bread pudding I'd ever eaten came from one the first restaurants where I worked. The Palmetto Cafe in Charleston Place Hotel, well then I think it was called the Omni. It was truly very, very good. It was a decadent dessert made with stale croissants. I've never been able to duplicate it, well who has stale croissants in their pantry? But I think I've managed to come pretty close by using leftover beignets from our Mardi Gras themed dinner. Warm out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some whipped cream? Hell yeah....it is good.

Ingredients

1 (10.75 ounce) loaf day-old bread, torn into small pieces
(I used leftover beignets, some coated with powdered sugar and some covered with cinnamon and sugar)
4 cups milk
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
3 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 12 oz. package white chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish.

2. In a large bowl, combine bread, milk, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and white chocolate chips; mixture should be the consistency of oatmeal. Pour into prepared pan.

3. Bake in preheated oven 1 hour, until nearly set. (It should have a "thigh wiggle" or wiggle as much as a well endowed thigh.) Serve warm or cold.