Chocolate Bread Puddings: A recipe to warm your taste buds this winter

THE cooler weather means it’s certainly looking like pudding time, and a simple bread and butter pudding is a beautiful treat.

Timely reward: Chocolate bread pudding needs plenty of time to cook, so start it a day before you plan to serve. Picture: Andy Rogers

THE cooler weather means it’s certainly looking like pudding time, and a simple bread and butter pudding is a beautiful treat. But you don’t need to always take the simple road.

These chocolate-infused puddings combine the richness of a simple pound cake with plain white bread and a hint of rum and raisins.

You may find a ready-made pound cake in your supermarket or cake shop, but they are easy things to make at home, too.

CHOCOLATE BREAD PUDDINGS

There is a bit of preparation in this dish, so start on the day before you plan to serve it.

Serves 6

200g plain pound cake (see recipe below), cut into 1cm dice, about 3 cups

3 cups white toast bread (crusts removed), cut into 1cm dice

½ cup raisins

Zest of 1 orange

½ cup dark rum

1½ cups thickened cream

1½ cups milk

6 large egg yolks

150g sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

About ¾ cup dark chocolate chips

Unsalted butter, for greasing the ramekins

Icing sugar

POUND CAKE

225g unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for the tin

250g plain flour, plus more for the tin

200g sugar

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

½ teaspoon salt

First make the pound cake. Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan). Butter and flour a 6-cup (23cm x 11cm) loaf tin and set it aside while you prepare the cake.

Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and salt.

With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour, beating just until combined (do not over-mix).

Bake until a toothpick inserted in centre of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour (cover loosely with aluminium foil if browning too quickly). Let the cake cool in the tin for 15 minutes. Invert on to a wire rack, and turn upright to cool completely.

To make the pudding, put a rack in the centre of the oven and turn it up to 200C (180C fan).

Put the diced cake and bread in a single layer on large rimmed baking sheet, transfer to the oven, and toast until it becomes lightly brown in places, tossing halfway through, about 10 minutes total. Turn off the oven and leave the tin on the rack overnight, with the door shut, until the cubes are very dry. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.

Put the raisins and orange zest in a small bowl, add the rum, and let soak until plumped, three hours or up to overnight. Drain the raisins and set aside. Reserve the rum for another use.

Put a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat to 160C (140C fan).

In a large bowl, whisk together the yolks and white sugar. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, warm the cream, milk and vanilla, whisking continuously until it begins to simmer.

Remove from the heat. Whisk the warm cream mixture into the egg mixture in three additions until well combined.

Stir in the raisins and the chocolate chips. Pour the mixture over the cake-bread mixture and fold together with a spatula until well combined. Refrigerate, covered, for at least four hours or up to overnight.

Generously butter six, one-cup ramekins. Choose a roasting dish large enough to accommodate the prepared ramekins with about 5cm of space on all sides.

Divide the bread mixture between the ramekins. Put the ramekins in the roasting dish and transfer to the oven. Carefully pour 2-3cm of boiling water around the baking dish (avoid getting water into ramekins) and bake until the custard sets, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the puddings from the roasting pan and let cool for at least 10 minutes. Serve sprinkled with icing sugar.

TIPS FOR THE PERFECT BREAD PUDDING

While there are lots of ways to prepare bread and butter pudding, there are a few simple guidelines that should be observed:

SOME people like bread and butter pudding so much they can’t wait for a loaf of bread to become stale before firing up the oven, but fresh bread tends to give an unpleasantly soggy result. You can use just about any plain or sweet bread you like, of course. For example, it’s a good way to use up a panettone if you’ve been inundated by gifts from well-meaning guests. Panettone is studded with all the dried fruits and candied peel so some of the work has already been done for you.

AS WELL as stale or dried bread you need to allow time for the bread components to absorb the custard.

MOST bread and butter puddings involve simple custard, a combination of milk, cream, sugar and eggs, mixed together and poured straight over the bread without further ado. Don’t use a homemade, cornflour-thickened egg custard. The result will be a disaster, with the pudding dry and heavy without the extra liquid.