Friday, February 12, 2010

Croissant Bread Puddings with Chocolate

Sometimes food seems to fly out of my kitchen. At other times, a food will take on a seemingly mysterious ability to last forever. The latter usually happens when I've been on a kick of indulging on an item until we are tired of it. Several years ago it happened with portobello mushrooms and I still can't look at one of those the same. More recently, I did it to myself with feta cheese--probably won't want any of that for a while. If I don't slow down on chickpeas, they will be next.

Of late, I have been on a mild croissant bender. Until I had to stop replenishing my croissant inventory and noticed that I had a few on hand that would need to be used or tossed in a day or two. (You know your bread has some age on it when you start checking for moldy spots.) I decided to use them for a bread pudding. I also spotted some Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips (60% cacao) leftover from my Christmas baking and decided to use them too. The pudding was delicious, when puffy and still warm from the oven.

Croissant Bread Pudding with Chocolate
7 - 8 cups leftover croissants or other bread, cut up or torn into bite-size pieces
1 cup chocolate chips
Butter
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 quart milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Heavily butter a 3 quart shallow baking dish. Place the bread in the dish. In a mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs then add the sugar. Whisk until well blended, then add the milk. Continue to whisk until evenly colored; stir in the vanilla. Pour the egg mixture over the bread and press down any bread that floats to completely saturate it. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50 - 60 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.


The next day I was looking at the pudding. It was no longer puffed, but rather sunken, and very unattractive. I thought I'd cut it into squares to help the aesthetics, because the taste was great. Then I thought no, I'll take a biscuit cutter and cut it into rounds. Then, Hey, it's Valentine's Day, I'll cut it into hearts.


A little dusting of confectioner's sugar, and now it is pretty.

8 comments:

  1. Very festive. If you dress up food, it always fits the celebration, no matter what the celebration is all about. I love bread pudding. Thanks for the idea.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My daughter is fanatical about croissants and I think she'll love this bread pudding. Your powdered-sugar dusted hearts look sweet & delicious. We went out for breakfast this Valentines, but I'm putting this recipe on the list for next year!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love it! I've made croissant bread pudding before, but didn't put chocolate in it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a cute idea! I love bread pudding but have never tried making it myself before. And with chocolate, how could you go wrong? Can't wait to give this a try!

    ReplyDelete
  5. LOVE this idea. And totally love your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  6. When did the chips go into the mix?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anan, I added the chips to the croissants beforee adding the custard.

    ReplyDelete