The Startup Cook – Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding 

Stale bread is a gift. It provides for an opportunity to make the best of bread puddings - be it sweet or savoury. The unique yet delicious thing about bread pudding is there are several ways of making it. The sweet pudding itself can boast over ten versions. You can stick to the classic by making it solely with milk, sugar and eggs or spice it up by adding chocolate chips or even a glaze to it. Fine tuning it to your personal taste is a trademark of bread pudding.

Found on Skinny Taste.com this pudding excluding any exaggeration screams ‘CHOCOLATE’. Tantalising your buds it’s rich and gooey. Its soggy texture with folds of melted chocolate is definitely a chocolate lover’s dream dessert. Besides the obvious addition, its technique is similar to a regular Bread Pudding - thus it’s a hassle-free make.

However because of its decadent nature, it is also a very fitting dessert to serve guests. Perfect after a spice filled lunch, dole out this luscious pudding with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream and let them savour a glimpse of chocolate heaven.

Ingredients 

4 slices of bread
1 ¼ cups of milk
1 cup of chopped cooking chocolate (dark)
2 tbs of chocolate powder
2 tbs of butter
1 tbs of sugar
1 1/2 tsp of vanilla
1 egg

Directions 

Preheat the oven to 175 Celsius. Prepare two ramekins and set aside.

Place the bread slices on a tray and bake until they are lightly toasted.

Take the bread out of the oven and let it cool.

Pour the milk in to a saucepan, add the cocoa powder, sugar, butter to it and melt on a low heat.

Once all the ingredients have merged, take it off the heat, pour in to a mixing bowl and let it cool.

Cut the crispy bread in to bite size cubes and set it aside.

Add the egg and vanilla to the milk mixture. Briskly whisk the ingredients for a minute.

Dump the cut bread in to the mixture and stir to coat gently. Let it rest for about 15 minutes.

Take a ramekin and scoop some chocolate soaked bread in to it. Press & flatten for space. Then add some chopped cooking chocolate on to it. Add another layer of chocolate coated bread on top of the chopped chocolate. Press & flatten for space. Top this final layer with a generous amount of chopped chocolate.

Repeat the same process with the other ramekin.

Place the ramekins on a tray. Put the tray in the oven.

Bake for 35 – 40 minutes.

Disasters, Warnings and Tips

Placing the ramekins on a tray is fundamental. Or you will be mopping inside your oven.

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This divine pudding must be eaten warm. Chocolate heavennnnn…

I made two ramekins of pudding with the given quantities.

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Toasted bread absorbs the chocolate milk mixture better.

Cooking chocolate once melted tends to harden when chilled.

For an awesome Savoury Bread Pudding do check http://life.dailymirror.lk/article/8744/the-startup-cook-bread-pudding.

By Shazzana Hamid