Preheat oven to 325° F. Cut the brioche loaf into 1-inch dice. Place in a
2-quart baking dish.
Drizzle with melted butter. Toss chunked white chocolate with bread cubes.
Combine milk, cream, sugar and vanilla bean and bring to a boil over medium heat
until sugar is dissolved. Whisk eggs until smooth. Add hot milk mixture to eggs
slowly, stirring constantly. (Do not whisk a lot or custard will have a great
deal of foam on the surface.) Skim foam from custard.
Strain custard over bread and chocolate. Let stand for 10 minutes to allow
custard to soak into bread.
Place baking dish in another larger pan. Pour hot water into larger dish to
reach 1 inch up side of dish. Bake the bread pudding for about 45 minutes to 1
hour, until custard is set and brioche is golden. Yield: 10-12 servings.
