Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Bread Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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.

Prepare

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

  2. Melt the chocolate in a saucepan over hot water.

  3. Add half of the sugar and enough milk from the bread mixture to create a pourable consistency.

Make the custard

  1. Combine this with the remaining sugar, salt, vanilla, and slightly beaten eggs.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 1 hour in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Serve with hard sauce or 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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Chocolate + sugartop 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

Stale bread crumbs
Form the body of the pudding by soaking up the milk and setting around the custard.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during baking to give the pudding its firm, custardy structure.
Milk
Hydrates the bread and forms the liquid base of the custard.
Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and richness throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Add the sugar and milk to the melted chocolate. Chocolate can seize or turn grainy when it meets liquid too quickly. Adding part of the sugar first and thinning with warm milk gradually keeps the mixture smooth and pourable before it is combined with the eggs.

“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

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipes