Guest Author - Katherine Tomlinson
Bread. Chocolate. Pudding. Three of the most comforting words in the foodiverse. Put them together—Chocolate Bread Pudding—and you have something that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. Whoever said “less is more” had never tasted Chocolate Bread Pudding.
Bread pudding started out as a way to keep stale bread from going to waste and it’s turned into a dessert that’s practically the signature dish of New Orleans—served in a soufflé with whiskey sauce at Commander’s Palace or old school style at the Bon Ton Café. It’s incredibly easy to make at home, and you can vary the amounts of ingredients to fit the number of people you’re feeding. Feel free to use any kind of bread you have on hand—leftover French bread is particularly good (and stale brioche is divine), but the recipe works just as well with Wonder Bread.
Making this dessert will take only slightly longer than whipping up a batch of scrambled eggs and the end result is a big slice of comfort—buttery, crisp, soft and sweet chocolate bread pudding, just the treat to reward yourself after a long, cold day.
Easy “Big Easy” Chocolate Bread Pudding
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Enough bread to fill a baking dish—torn into small pieces
2 cups milk
¼ cup butter
2/3 cup light brown sugar
3 eggs
¾ cup chocolate chips
2 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Combine the milk and butter in a saucepan, stirring until the butter is melted. Cool slightly.
Beat the sugar and spices into the eggs until frothy. Add the vanilla extract.
Combine the egg mixture and the milk mixture slowly. (Make sure the milk isn’t too hot or the raw eggs will curdle.)
Mix in the bread and turn everything into a baking dish that has been greased or treated with non-stick spray.
Don’t pack the bread down too tightly or the “pudding” will compact and get really dense instead of staying moist and fluffy with those delicious buttery, crunchy bits.
Bake for 45-55 minutes until the “pudding” is set. Serve warm as is or add a few spoonfuls of whipped cream.
Optional: Substitute ½ to ¾ cup raisins for the chocolate chips.
