Cranberry and Croissant Bread Pudding with Champagne Zabaglione Sauce

A decadent and delicious breakfast for special occasions, especially over the winter holidays.

This Cranberry and Croissant Bread Pudding with Champagne Zabaglione Sauce has a decidedly Italian flair and I feel home again when I’m making dishes like this.

My grandparents are from all over; I’m a mixture of German, Scandinavian, English and Irish. So would someone please tell me why I love all things Italian?

My theory is that a female in the family made a clandestine visit to Italy once, came home after a fling with a handsome Italian man and unbeknownst to anyone else, started the genetic pool of Italian blood that I know runs through my veins.

I love Italian food, architecture, wine and well ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ which of course, is the dream I envision coming true at any moment.

I fancy my home to have an Italian feel to it though it is a Cape Cod style on the outside and in moments of abject reality I know that having wine bottles placed everywhere for decor does not really qualify. But please do not burst my bubble…a girl can dream, right?

When presented with this months Recipe Swap challenge to make Zabaglione as inspired from a restaurant in Chicago I was excited. I knew it was a custard made with Marsala wine and that was about it.

My sweet friend Lora at Cake Duchess was my polar opposite; no biggie for her. Probably because she feeds her family Zabaglione for snacks.

And you should hear her say it…really, I’m pathetic; just hearing her accent makes me swoon. I know if I ever heard her hubs Fabrizio speak Italian it would be all over.

No, I would not be all over HIM…but I might cave and buy that one way ticket to the place I’ve never been that I know I have romanticized beyond compare.

Zabaglione is typically made using egg yolks, sugar, and Marsala wine. But I had a bit of champagne left over from New Years and though I do have a system for removing air to try to preserve freshness, I knew using it in cooking would be a better idea than drinking it.

So I decided to make Zabaglione using Champagne. Though following on the heels of the season of overindulgence and sweets; this might be indulgent but the champagne and cranberries keep it from being overly sweet.

It ~~was~~ is simply fabulous (I’m saving it for this week when some friends come over…or at least I’m going to try!).

A quick web search to see if that had been done resulted in finding a dish from Chef Billy Paresi and I just had to, with a few of my own revisions of course!

Cherries became cranberries and I used brown sugar in the custard mixture for the bread pudding. The original recipe also called for whipped cream but I have to tell you…topping it with some cranberries that I candied in a Champagne simple syrup was a good call.

It’s plenty rich without whipping cream, the cranberries are heavenly and they add such a nice visual touch too!

Happy Birthday Laura!

I’ve decided that any dessert this sophisticated and amazing must be in celebration of something. So I’m making it for my baby sister Laura as a belated birthday celebration; her birthday was this past Wednesday.

Now…she might not be a baby anymore but our 16 year age difference meant she was ‘sort of’ my baby once many years ago and that will never change. She lives in Wisconsin so we seldom get together but it doesn’t mean she goes unremembered on those special days.

Neither of us really need gifts from each other but I only wish she was here sharing this with me. It’s wonderful, it’s pretty and hey Laura…it’s vegetarian too! XOXO