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Dessert

Cold Chocolate Bread Pudding

A chilled pudding made with bread crumbs, chocolate, milk, and eggs, baked and topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cold Chocolate Bread Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the chocolate base

  1. Add bread crumbs, chocolate, and sugar to cold milk, reserving ½ cup of milk.

  2. Put the mixture in a double boiler and cook until a smooth paste forms.

  3. Beat the egg yolks until light, then add the reserved milk, butter, and salt; stir into the hot mixture.

  4. Cook until the mixture thickens, then add vanilla.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour into a buttered pudding dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

  2. Cool slightly, cover with meringue, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 8 minutes.

  3. Serve very cold.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness and a smooth texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and give the pudding its body and soft, spongy crumb.
Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and, melted into the paste, adds richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the texture of the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the bread and chocolate soak into and set.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until it thickens. Egg yolks thicken with gentle heat but can scramble if the mixture gets too hot. Cook slowly over the double boiler, stirring, and stop once it coats a spoon.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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