I’m a total sucker for bread pudding. And not just because it’s an excuse to use up leftover bread (which would normally be a good enough reason!). It’s because it’s got that rich comfort food quality that warms you up inside with each and every bite. Spoon after spoon, flavor after flavor, bread pudding is simply, delicious.
Usually, I whip up a batch of chocolate cinnamon bread pudding with chocolate chips. It’s really good, I have to admit. But when I made a variation of this recipe in culinary school last week, I was just wowed by the melted chocolately goodness. Instead of just throwing in chocolate chips, the custard is heated and poured over the chocolate, creating a rich chocolate sauce. The sauce is then poured over the bread so that every morsel is soaked in chocolate batter. Every bite is pure chocolate bliss.
Oh, and there’s rum too. Do I even need to elaborate?
With Pesach a mere 2 weeks away, it’s time to pull all that leftover challah out from the back of your freezer and bake up this awesome treat. You’ll love it so much, you’ll be stashing challah just so that you can make again!
Happy Cleaning!
Chocolate Bread Pudding
adapted from Professional Baking by Wayne Gislin
1 lb. leftover challa
5 cups coconut milk
1/2 vanilla bean*
6 oz. sugar
12 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 oz. dark rum
8 eggs
Method:
Tear the challa into pieces and place into a greased casserole dish (or individual ramekins, if you wish). Set aside.
Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add to a pot along with the milk and sugar. Add the scraped bean as well. Heat until the sugar is dissolved and remove the vanilla bean. Pour the hot milk over the chopped chocolate and stir until the chocolate is completely melted and combined. Stir in the rum.
In a bowl, whisk the eggs and temper them by slowly adding the hot chocolate mixture while you whisk. Pour the chocolate mixture over the challa in the casserole dish. Push down on the bread to make sure that it’s fully saturated with the liquid.
To create a waterbath (this keeps the bread pudding moist), place the casserole dish into a larger pan (like a roasting pan) and place on the rack in the oven, with the rack pulled out. Add water to the roasting pan so that the casserole dish is surrounded by water, about 3/4 of the way up.
Bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
*If you do not have a vanilla bean, you may use 2 tsp of vanilla extract.
NOTE: If you’d like to make this dairy,use 2 1/2 cups heavy cream + 2 1/2 cups of milk instead of the coconut milk.
1 year ago: Bubby’s challah kugel
2 years ago: perfect pareve french toast
This looks amazing and so rich. I love that you made it pareve with coconut milk!
Bread pudding is soooo good. Can I use fresh challah?
You sure can! You’ll find a lot of recipes that call for stale bread because when bread is old, it loses some of it’s moisture and becomes like a sponge, soaking up all of the custard. But fresh challah will work practically just as well.
Wow. I might make challlah just so I can have leftovers to make this :)
This sounds so decadent! I love using coconut milk to make parve bread pudding.
I’m not sure why I’ve never used my leftover bread for breadpudding but I will now! Yum!
We never have left over challah! :) I better buy an extra and hide it so that I can make this. This looks delicious.
I am also a sucker for bread pudding! So good. This one looks rich and fudgy. Yum.
Holy cow! This looks fantastic! Can’t wait to try!
This is my kind of bread pudding, I only like them very chocolatey.
Childhood memories…!
I looooooove a good bread pudding! I make them savory all the time but I love this idea of using coconut milk with the chocolate. Very nice.
Yum, I think the kids will love this, especially as an extra treat before Passover!
i always use leftover challah for french toast…but this looks amazing. thanks for the idea
This looks amazing! Definitely a great use of leftover challah.
This looks so rich!