TWD: Four Star Bread Pudding

In an attempt to live a healthier life and balance the foods that are enriching to my body and the foods that taste amazingly delicious I have decided that baking is not going to happen in our home for a few months. It has been about four weeks and my husband stated on Friday that I am depriving our children of their childhood. I had to laugh. To some degree I agree. Baking goodies should be part of a child's growing up experience. I will be back at it soon, but hopefully this can help me be wise about our food decisions here. Okay thus the explanation....today we are so very lucky to have a guest baker add to the delights of Dorie. My fabulous friend, Erica, so kindly agreed to do the baking for me. She did a great review and has some fun pictures. Erica has a blog of her own called Just for Me and You. Hop on over if you are interested in winning some AWESOME products. This week the blog is featuring See Kai Run and there will be more later this week too. So let's turn it over to Erica.

Four-Star Chocolate Bread Pudding

I have to admit, “bread pudding” is not my favorite combination of words. When I think of bread pudding, I think of a bland, mushy concoction served at grandma’s house. However, any recipe titled Four-Star Chocolate is destined to pique my interest. I determined to reserve judgment and even found myself excited to try my hand at my very own mushy concoction.



The ingredients in this dessert are all very common and easily accessible; in fact, I found most of them already stocked in my fridge. I opted for challah as my bread base, and chose to omit the raisins. Assembling the pudding was the most fun. It was a simple process that even the kids participated in. Nothing is sweeter than baking that can be a family affair. We each had our turn smooshing the bread into the custard, or more appropriately, “giving the bread the back-of-the-spoon treatment.” There was no aspect of this dessert that was difficult, which made it a delight to create, regardless of the end result.


The Verdict:

The chocolate flavor of the bread pudding was divine; perfectly rich and decadent. In the end though, flavor can only take you so far and bread pudding is still bread pudding, and I am simply not a huge lover of bread pudding. The taste was definitely fabulous enough to have me finish my serving, but the texture of the pudding kept me from returning for seconds. In the end, if your heart holds a special place for bread pudding, this recipe will knock your socks off. Conversely, if the thought of bread pudding does not get you salivating, this recipe will not be enough to make you a believer.

Note:

I made the bread pudding in a 7-x-11 inch baking pan. If I were to make this again, I would choose to use a 9-x-13 to decrease the density and cooking time.

If you are interested in this recipe visit Lauren at Upper East Side Chronicle for the details.

Thanks again Erica!!