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Dessert

Chocolate Bread Pudding

A sweet pudding made from bread crumbs soaked in milk, chocolate, sugar, and eggs, served hot.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in the scalded milk for 30 minutes.

  2. Melt the chocolate over hot water, then mix in half of the sugar and enough milk to create a pourable consistency.

Make the pudding

  1. Combine the melted chocolate mixture with the soaked bread crumbs and milk, then add the salt, vanilla, and slightly beaten egg.

  2. If desired, fold in the broken nut meat.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with sauce or 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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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
Absorb the hot milk and set into a soft, custardy body as the pudding bakes.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set into a tender, sliceable texture.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavor and richness of the pudding.
Milk
Softens the bread and supplies moisture for a creamy, pourable base.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Melting the chocolate over hot water. Chocolate can seize or scorch if it gets too hot or touches water directly. Gentle indirect heat keeps it smooth so it blends evenly into the milk mixture.

“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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