Stephencooks

I've been exploring the world of bread puddings (see box) for the last few months and so when I needed a dessert for dinner a few nights ago with our friends Kit and Carrie I naturally went to the bread drawer to see what sort of stale goodies might be available. I found half of the loaf of a nice black pumpernickel that I bought five or six days previously for the Graveblue Sandwiches so decided to use that.

Bread Pudding Madness!


Here are some more of my recent bread pudding posts:
• Pear Bread Pudding with Blueberry Caramel
• Ginger Pumpkin Bread Pudding
• Tomato Bread Pudding I
• Roasted Tomato Bread Pudding

I had in mind a regular bread pudding, with cinnamon and raisins, but as I was assembling the ramkins full of bread I thought that since it looked like a chocolate dessert it ought to actually be a chocolate dessert. It wasn't too big a stretch to convert the recipe (I just added chocolate and upped the cognac quantity a little).

The result was extremely good. It seemed more chocolatey that it should have considering the small amount of actual chocolate I used, which was probably because of the naturally chocolatey flavor of black bread. It's possible that the bread had chocolate in it...some black breads I've made have included chocolate. Anyway, this was a chocaholic's delight.

Kit also pointed out something that I hadn't really focused on before: the technique of making the pudding from sticks of bread, with the crust end up -- which I developed purely for visual styling reasons -- in fact adds a lot to the pleasure of the dessert. The crust ends, most of which stick up above the custard level during the baking, become quite crisp and crunchy, which is extremely pleasing when combined in the mouth with the soft, smooth custardy lower part. 

Chocolatey, crunchy, custardy -- however you look at it, this one's a keeper.