I've never had regular bread pudding and, frankly, bread pudding does not sound appealing. I mean, soggy bread? Yum... (really laying on the sarcasm).
However, I worked at
Pappasito's (a fantastic Tex-Mex restaurant in Dallas) when I was 20. I sampled everything that was on the menu so that I was able to describe it to patrons. They have a dessert there called '
Capriotada'. It is a chocolate bread pudding and they serve it with cinnamon ice cream. It is fantastic!
Since I no longer live anywhere near a
Pappasito's, I have not indulged in this treat for quite a while. I had a loaf of stale french bread and thought I would attempt to make a chocolate bread pudding. After some searching on the
internet, I found a recipe that had great reviews and I decided to give it a try.
Courtesy Paula Deen from foodnetwork.comChocolate Bread Pudding
Ingredients
- 1 (1-pound) loaf French or Italian bread, cubed
- 3 cups milk
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup coffee flavored liqueur
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 6 eggs, lightly beaten
- 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, grated
- Whipped cream (optional)
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Lightly grease a 13 by 9-inch baking dish and place the bread in the dish. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, cream, and liqueur. Using another bowl, combine the sugar, brown sugar, and cocoa powder and mix well. Add the sugar mixture to the milk mixture and mix well. Add the vanilla and almond extract, and cinnamon to the beaten eggs. Combine the egg mixture to the milk mixture and mix well.
Stir the grated chocolate into the mixture. Pour the mixture over the cubed bread in the pan. Let the mixture stand, stirring occasionally for approximately 20 minutes or until bread absorbs most of the milk mixture. Bake pudding for 1 hour or until set. Check pudding by inserting a knife through the middle and it should come out clean.
Serve the pudding warm, or refrigerate and serve chilled with whipped cream if desired.
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Here is what I did different:
- I cut out the liqueur
- I cut the almond extract to 1 tsp
- I used chocolate chips
Here is what I would do different next time and a couple tips:
- Still leave out the liqueur
- Cut the almond extract to 1/2 tsp. I think that even when I cut it in half, it was still a little overpowering. If it's not your favorite flavor, I think it would be just fine if you leave it out completely
- Use grated chocolate-NOT CHOCOLATE CHIPS! They just sink to the bottom and then you have a layer of melted chocolate stuck to the bottom of the pan. Grated chocolate will incorporate much better.
- Make sure you let the bread soak for the whole 20 minutes otherwise the top will be crunchy bread and the bottom will be soggy bread pudding.
- Serve warm with vanilla bean ice cream (my preference)
I thought that this was a great recipe. Easy to make and turns out really well. Good for when you have company over for dinner. Although it is not a replica of the dessert from
Pappasito's, it is definitely a keeper!
Happy baking!
Paisley Jae
We had dinner at my dad and Cindy's. Steven, Christy and Norah were there too. It was great to be able to celebrate Torin's birthday with them.
Gavin was just looking on during all the festivities.
Torin just wanted to eat Spongebob's tie. So he did.
Poor, poor Spongebob...
This is a video of us singing to Torin but he was way more interested in the homemade ice cream Cindy had just finished. It was good.
What a silly boy :)
Good. Well stop covering them up with this...
April 30, 7:15 am. I mean, seriously...stop it. I am ready for spring. Quit jerking around with my emotions.
