Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Bread Pudding

A baked dessert made with bread crumbs, sweet milk, cocoa, sugar, and eggs, served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and cocoa work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 643 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Chocolate Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine 2 cups bread crumbs, 4 cups sweet milk, 3 cups cocoa, 3 cups sugar, and 2 beaten eggs in a bowl.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for one-half hour in a moderate oven.

  2. Serve with whipped cream.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

886Calories
29 gProtein
23 gFat
137 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924). 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. See the original page.

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 + cocoatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together643 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Bread + cocoatop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Soak up the liquid and give the pudding its soft, bready body.
Sweet milk
Provides the liquid that moistens the crumbs and keeps the pudding tender.
Eggs
Set as they bake, binding the mixture into a sliceable, custard-like pudding.
Cocoa
Supplies the chocolate flavor and deep color.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the cocoa.

The step that matters

Baking until just set. Eggs thicken as they heat, so baking too long can curdle and dry the custard, while underbaking leaves it loose and wet in the centre.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, sugar, egg):

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Cocoathe original
  3. Peasfits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesBrown Bread PuddingBrown Bread Pudding47 recipes