Chocolate Bread Pudding

A couple of days ago we bought some Italian bread to take to an appetizer party along with our sourdough bread snowman and chimahurri sauce.  But then just before we were about to leave we found out that there would only be 20 people in attendance and we did not need to bring too much food. So the bread was left to waste away on the counter.

A day or so later I decided the bread needed to be made. So I searched recipes for bread pudding which is what one typically does with day-old bread. I wanted to make our recipe for pumpkin bread pudding that we did for Thanksgiving Testing 2011 but I didn't have pumpkin on hand and it wasn't time for shopping.

I ended up making a variety of Chocolate Bread Pudding from a recipe on Real Simple.  I had all the ingredients but I had to cheat a little on the types of chocolate I used--I didn't have enough squares of semi sweet available. I actually skimped on the chocolate and it was still enough.  I wish that this recipe had a dash of cinnamon or something to round out the flavor.

I also skimped on the soaking time and the weighing down the bread.  I did this because I decided to make the dish at 8pm and didn't really want it around the next day.  I brought the dish to work. It was completely gone by 5pm.  I think that's a sign of either a good dish or a compelling idea that people though sounded good, tasted, and threw away.  But I'll never know!

You should make this but follow the directions for soaking.  Since I didn't I found that the middle of the bread was still white (it should be brown and covered in chocolate).  I also found chocolate crusts on the top of the bread--as though I melted chocolate, let it harden, and spread it on top.  On the other hand, the dish was still good so do whatever you want if you make it.  I think I prefer bread pudding that isn't chocolate--believe it or not.

The Recipe.