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Dessert

Chocolate Bread Pudding

A custard-like pudding made from stale bread crumbs, milk, chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs, salt, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

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 custard

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in the scalded milk for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the melted chocolate, salt, sugar, vanilla, melted butter, and slightly beaten eggs.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish.

  2. Poach in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.

  3. Serve with whipped cream.

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. 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

Eggs
Set the custard into a sliceable, tender structure as they cook.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and provide the body that holds the pudding together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that moistens the bread and dissolves the sugar.
Chocolate
Gives the pudding its chocolate flavor and deep color.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer flavor and a softer, more tender crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Poach in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour. Egg proteins set gently in the custard. Too much heat or time makes the eggs curdle and turn grainy and watery, so the pudding should be cooked gently until just set.

“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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