Bread and Chocolate Pudding

Do you like bread?  Do you like chocolate? Then you will love Bread and Chocolate Pudding. The pudding part of this dessert is so minuscule; it's the bread and chocolate that really shine.  I dearly love my dearly beloved, and he LOVES chocolate. I decided to make this dish extra chocolatey, just for him.  I add some ... well ... you'll see:

That's right ... chocolate milk!  I mixed whole milk and chocolate milk together and reduced the sugar quite a bit.  It was a great success!

I started by cubing some seriously stale and frozen hot dog buns. It's OK to use stale and frozen in this case because the bread soaks up the pudding part like crazy!  Just think of it as thirsty bread.

Chocolate chips were sprinkled over the thirsty bread. Sprinkled generously.

Then I made the custard: egg, milk, sugar, a pinch of salt, and vanilla extract.

The custard is then poured over the bread and chocolate and then it goes into the oven!  Assembling this bread pudding takes about ten minutes and then it bakes for about 30 minutes ... then it's time to EAT!  It only seemed right to serve this chocolate dish with chocolate .... ice cream!!

In the words of my dearly beloved, "Fantastic."

See other variations of Moosewood Bread Pudding here:

Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding 
Banana Bread Pudding

Banana Bread Pudding

Wow, has it really been a year since I made Ricotta Cake for Charlie's birthday last year!? Time flies. This year, I made Banana Bread Pudding for my favorite human. It was a huge success and very easy.

It all began with a couple of hot dog buns. I diced them up.

Then I sliced up some ripe bananas and put the buns and bananas in a baking dish. I sprinkled a generous dash of nutmeg and cinnamon on top.

Then I made the custard: milk, eggs, vanilla, salt, and sugar.  The custard got poured over the top.

Then the bread pudding baked. The sweet smell of cinnamon and bananas filled the apartment ... ahhh! So much nicer than the fresh coat of deck stain that has been wafting through lately. Yuck.The bread pudding was done when it was firm in the center, but not dry. Giving the pan a hearty jiggle made this clear.

After a night of school for both Charlie and I, it sure was nice to come home to this treat. Freshly baked banana bread pudding with a little scoop of organic chocolate ice cream ... a dreamy combination!

Happy birthday to you, Charlie. You are sweeter than banana bread pudding! I tried to find the most flattering photo of you to accompany this post. You sure are handsome.

Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding

An afternoon treat for this terrible dark and drizzly Friday afternoon: Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding! Now, a moment of honesty... I didn't believe it when I read Mollie's description for this dessert: "transcendent served warm, with ice cream!" Really?! Could some simple dessert distract me from these January blues? I was willing to give a it a try, but with a killer headache, unrelenting damp darkness, and a stack of homework calling my name, I was a skeptic.

Anyways, here's the nitty gritty. I cubed a few cups of white bread. I used some recently purchased but not totally awesome organic white bread hamburger buns. I whisked eggs and milk and salt and vanilla. I poured the custard over the cubes of bread. Paused for a moment. Gazed outside at the drear. Looked down at the uncooked bread pudding... and realized I forgot an essential ingredient! SUGAR! I had to improvise a little bit here.  I thought about sprinkling the sugar on top of the bread pudding, but instead I just poured everything out, added the sugar, and mixed it with a spoon.  It actually turned out OK and was only a little bit hard to get out of the pan. Next time I will spray with some nonstick cooking spray beforehand.

I served the bread pudding with some canned peach slices and it was quite nice. The bread pudding reminded me of French toast, only baked. And I have to admit, there was a moment where I was able to push aside the rain, the school stress, and the ache in my brain and make room for this warm, tasty dessert.