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Dessert

Bittersweet Chocolate Bread Pudding

A pudding made from stale bread crumbs, milk, chocolate, sugar, and vanilla, topped with a vanilla sauce.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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 ↓

Bittersweet Chocolate Bread Pudding

Time½ hour

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Soak the bread in 1 ¾ cups of milk for thirty minutes.

  2. Melt the chocolate over hot water, then gradually add sugar and the remaining ¼ cup of milk to make a smooth paste.

  3. Add the chocolate paste to the bread along with salt, vanilla, and a slightly beaten egg.

  4. Place the mixture in a well-buttered pudding dish and bake for ½ hour until set.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. While the pudding bakes, make the vanilla sauce by melting the butter and flour, stirring until it bubbles.

  2. Add boiling water and sugar to the sauce, boiling until smooth and thoroughly cooked.

  3. Add flavoring, strain the sauce, and serve hot over the pudding.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1000Calories
29 gProtein
35 gFat
138 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saucenot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Milk + vanillatop 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 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

Bread crumbs
Soaks up the milk and gives the pudding its soft, absorbent body.
Milk
Moistens the bread and, with the egg, sets into a custard-like texture.
Chocolate
Supplies the main chocolate flavour and richness once melted into the milk.
Egg
Sets during baking, binding the pudding so it firms rather than staying loose.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and sauce, balancing the bitter chocolate.
Flour
Thickens the sauce when cooked in melted butter, giving it body.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce until smooth and fully cooked. Flour thickens only when it is cooked with the liquid. Adding boiling water and stirring keeps lumps from forming, and cooking it thoroughly removes the raw starchy taste of the flour.

“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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