Chocolate Bread Pudding

If I had to say a moment I’m most proud of in my life, I’d say it’d be the time I made this bread pudding … and then tried to put it in a pie pan.  And then it overflowed everywhere and I didn’t freak out. Instead I poured it in a spring-form pan and crossed my fingers that the layers of bread would be hip and cool like they were at first.

Oh yeah … Are you hiring for a bread-pudding-spiller and not-freaker-outter? Do you pay in bread pudding? Awesome. I’m in.

You might just want to double this recipe and instead put it in a 9 x 13 inch pan like Real Simple intended. I bet it’ll fly out of that pan and into 8+ bellies before you can say, “Chocolate bread pudding is the cure for the common breakfast.”

I’ve been daydreaming about this all week, and it is just as good as I imagined! Here’s the proof: after taking one blurry picture of the piece I cut, I stood in the kitchen and ate it while gazing at the remaining chocolate pac-man.

Never had bread pudding before? Make this and eat it standing in your kitchen.

Chocolate Bread Pudding
Recipe adapted in half from Real Simple

Ingredients:

• 2 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 T butter
• 6 oz. semisweet chocolate
• 1 1/2 t vanilla extract
• 1/2 a loaf of white bread, crusts trimmed (about 7 pieces)
• whipped cream, for topping

Directions:

1. Whisk the milk, eggs and sugar in a medium saucepan. Add the butter and chocolate and heat over a low heat, stirring only until the butter and chocolate melt. Stir in vanilla.
2. Lightly coat a springform pan with cooking spray. Arrange the bread slices in the dish, overlapping. Pour the chocolate sauce over the bread.
3. Cover with plastic wrap or with foil sprayed with cooking spray. Place another baking dish on top to weight down the bread. Set aside for 1 hour to allow the bread to absorb the sauce. (Can be made up to this point 1 day ahead. Refrigerate until bake time.) Heat oven to 325°F.
4. Remove the top baking dish and plastic or foil. Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes or until set (35-40 for a double recipe in a 9 x 13 inch pan). Serve warm with whipped cream.

This is the part of the night where Elliot judged me.