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Dessert

Cold Chocolate Bread Pudding

A chilled chocolate bread pudding made with stale bread crumbs, milk, eggs, chocolate, butter, sugar, 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 ↓

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 custard

  1. Combine bread, chocolate, and sugar in cold milk, reserving ½ cup of milk.

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

  3. Beat egg yolks until light.

  4. Add reserved milk, butter, and salt; stir into the hot mixture.

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

Bake and serve

  1. Pour into a buttered pudding dish.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

  3. Cool slightly.

  4. Cover with meringue.

  5. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 8 minutes.

  6. 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. 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
Egg yolks thicken the custard and give it a rich, set texture when heated.
Bread crumbs
Soft bread crumbs absorb the milk and give the pudding its body.
Milk
Milk forms the liquid base that the bread soaks up and the custard sets from.
Chocolate
Melted chocolate supplies the main flavor and deepens the color of the pudding.
Butter
Butter adds fat, which gives a smoother mouthfeel and richer flavor to the custard.
Sugar
Sugar sweetens the pudding and helps balance the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture until it thickens before adding vanilla. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can curdle them. Cooking gently until the custard coats a spoon gives a smooth base before the other ingredients are added.

“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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