Chocolate Bread & Butter Pudding is excerpted from BIGGER BOLDER BAKING: A Fearless Approach to Baking Anytime, Anywhere © 2019 by Gemma Stafford. Photography © 2019 by Carla Choy. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
Chocolate Bread & Butter Pudding
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
Bread-and-butter pudding is so dangerously addictive! I used to make this at a restaurant in San Francisco by soaking slices of homemade brioche in a creamy custard made with fine melted dark chocolate, cream, and egg yolks. It was so rich, it was practically sinful. It was baked in a rectangular pan but I would cut out circular pieces with a cookie cutter to create a beautiful plated dessert that the patrons would appreciate. This left bread pudding scraps that seemed a shame to throw away, so I would collect them into a big bowl for the staff to enjoy. I consciously tried to keep from eating those scraps myself. It was a war between self-control and self-indulgence, a fight I didn’t always win.
- 1½ cups (340 milliliters) heavy cream
- ¾ cup (4.5 ounces/ 128 grams) chopped bittersweet chocolate
- ½ cup (115 milliliters) whole milk
- 6 large egg yolks
- ½ cup (115 grams) sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons (½ stick/57 grams) butter, softened
- 10 to 13 slices white sandwich bread
- Vanilla ice cream, for serving
- In a medium saucepan, combine the cream, chocolate, and milk and heat over medium heat just until the chocolate has melted. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
- In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until combined.
- While whisking swiftly, gradually pour the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture.
- Strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl to remove any lumps.
- Whisk in the vanilla and salt. Set aside to cool completely, about 1 hour.
- Butter the slices of bread. Remove and discard the crusts and cut the buttered bread into cubes.
- Add the bread to the bowl with the custard, pushing the bread down with a spatula until submerged. Cover and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes and up to overnight for the bread to soak up the custard. (I usually let it soak overnight.)
- When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325°F (165°C). Butter an 8-inch square baking dish.
- Pour your bread pudding mixture into the prepared baking dish.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. It’s okay if the bread pudding is a little soft in the middle when it comes out of the oven—that means it is nice and saucy on the inside.
- Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream. Store any leftovers in the fridge, covered, for up to 3 days.
