Chocolate Bread & ButterPudding jpeg

Chocolate Bread & Butter Pudding serves 6 © Kevin Ashton 2005
Sometimes a recipe idea rolls around in my head for quite a while, other times they wake me up in the middle of the night insisting that I write them down. Other times necessity like a dinner party I’m suppose to cook helps focus and firm up my ideas. Such was the case a couple weeks ago when I was asked to make dessert for a dinner party at my sister’s.
The challenge I made for myself was a chocolate bread & butter pudding that was very chocolatey, not too sweet. I wanted to use brown malted bread & prunes soaked in brandy in place of the usual sultanas. Often bread puddings have too much bread and are disappointingly dry & heavy but not this one, sublime was one of the comments express by a dinner guest & I know he was not referring to my loud silk tie with kippers on it!

160 grams plain dark chocolate (70% or better)
3 large eggs
400 ml double cream
few drops vanilla extract
250 grams pitted soft prunes (optional)
30 ml brandy
7 slices multi grain brown bread
75 grams unsalted butter
75 grams caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
25 ml cold water

1. Lightly butter an oven proof dish approximately 12 x 8 inches oval dish that is 2 inches deep.
2. Cut the prunes in half and soak in the brandy.
3. Stir the cinnamon into the butter until it is soft enough to spread.
4. Trim the crusts off the bread then gently spread on the cinnamon butter.
5. Break the chocolate in pieces into a bowl and melt over simmering water, remove from the heat once the chocolate has melted.
6. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs, vanilla with the caster sugar for 4 minutes.
7. Stir half the cream gradually into the melted chocolate, then stir in the water.
8. Now stir in the egg mix then the remaining cream.
9. Cut the bread slices into 1/4’s (corner to corner) and place a layer into the buttered dish, butter side up.
8. Cover the bread layer with 1/2 of the chocolate mix, then sprinkle on the prunes.
9. Make a second layer of the remaining bread, then again cover with other 1/2 of the chocolate mix, making sure all of the bread is well covered.
10. Cling wrap the dish and refrigerate for 12 hours to let the bread soak up the chocolate mix.
11. Bake in a preheated oven gas mark 4 (180 C ) for 30-35 minutes.
12. Dust with icing sugar and serve with cold cream or creme fraiche.

Chef’s Tips
As always when melting chocolate its critical not to get it too hot, once the water is simmering turn the heat off, and as soon as the majority of chocolate is melted take the bowl off the water pan. The other critical point is when you add the cream to the chocolate. The chocolate will probably thicken up when you add the first half of cream, then the water should thin it back down. Let the mix cool for a 2-3 minutes further before addling the egg mix and the rest of the cream.

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