chocolate bread pudding

Today was sort of a piddle around day. I had a big long to-do list and only crossed a few items off. One of those items was to clean a bathroom which I did and I also changed the bed sheets so I guess I accomplished something. Another item on my list was to do something with a loaf of French bread that I let sit around for several days until it became hard and stale. I settled on chocolate bread pudding because it has always been one of Bill's favorite desserts. I like it as a breakfast item. Then I had to search through tons of cookbooks for a recipe. I settled on Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts.


We like to eat it in bowls with milk.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

3 cups milk
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 T butter
1 cup sugar
2 t vanilla
1 c heavy cream (I used half & half)
4 lg eggs
4 cups coarse fresh crumbs
This is where I deviated from the recipe. I don't know how many cups of bread crumbs I had. I didn't really have crumbs. I tried breaking up my loaf of bread in to pieces and turning it into crumbs in my food processor, but the big chunks got stuck on the blades and were to hard to process. When the motor started smelling hot I stopped and used a knife to cut the bread into slices and then broke those up with my hands. So I ended up with big chunks, small chunks and crumbs.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 2 to 3 quart casserole dish.
In a saucepan , heat milk, chocolate and butter until the chocolate has melted, about 5 minutes. Stir in the sugar and vanilla and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the cream and eggs until evenly colored. Add the melted chocolate mixture and the bread and mix well.
Pour the pudding into the prepared baking dish and bake until puffed and set about 1 hour. The center may jiggle a little but a knife inserted in the center should come out almost clean.
B pronounced it good and said that his taste buds appreciated it.