The tang of dark chocolate, a hint of orange, the chew of pugliese and mousse-like pudding makes this bread pudding something extra special. Top with vanilla orange sauce, whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Ingredients
8 cups cubed stale Pugliese or French bread (1 large loaf)
6 eggs
1 cup Half and Half
2 cups 2% Milk
½ to ¾ cup Sugar (to taste)
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 teaspoon Cointreau orange liqueur
6 ounces Scharffen Berger 99% Chocolate, chopped into chunks
3.5 ounces Lindt Excellence 70% chocolate bar, broken into pieces
1 teaspoon Orange Zest
Water (for hot water bath)
Instructions
Bread should be well dried out, several days old. One large loaf can be approximately 32 ounces. Remove crust from bread and cut into ½” slices horizontally, then cube in ½” cubes.
Combine half and half, milk and sugar in saucepan and heat until sugar has dissolved to just scalded (but not boiling.) Remove from heat. Add chocolate and stir until melted and incorporated into the liquid.
Lightly whisk eggs in a large bowl until well beaten.
Gradually add one cup of the chocolate liquid to the eggs, whisking as you go to temper the egg mixture (to gradually bring up the temperature of the eggs so they do not cook in the hot milk mixture.)
Add orange zest, cointreau and vanilla. Then continue adding the rest of the liquid.
Add bread cubes to bowl and stir to combine with chocolate mixture. Soak bread for at least an hour (two hours even better.) Occasionally stir/fold the bread in the liquid to aid bread fully soaking in the chocolate goodness.
When you are ready to bake, pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
Butter deep baking dishes that will accommodate about 10 cups of mixture. I used a combination of 1 six cup, 1 three cup and 4 ½ cup silicone cupcake molds.
Prepare a hot water bath by placing the baking dishes in a large roasting pan (or pans according to space requirements) and filling half-way up the sides with hot water.
Bake for 45 minutes or until the edges are set and the center is slightly jiggly but toothpick comes out clean. (If you use the cupcake molds remove at about 30-35 minutes.)
Cool on baking rack. Pudding will continue to set during the cooling process.
Serve warm with whipped cream, ice cream or a nice vanilla orange sauce. I liked the leftovers chilled or room temperature. Reheating changes the consistency of the silky pudding texture.
Notes
This is less sweet than many chocolate desserts, the 99% unsweetened chocolate gives a very complex flavor and you can add additional sugar to suite your taste or use a less dark chocolate combination. You will need 9-10 ounces of chocolate for full chocolate flavors.The orange sauce I made (mixing orange juice, powdered sugar, Cointreau and orange zest) set off a nice sweet brightness to contrast with the rich dark chocolate.
Recipe by What about the food? at https://whataboutthefood.com/dark-chocolate-bread-pudding/