Double Chocolate Bread Pudding

Double Chocolate Bread Pudding - made January 6, 2013 from Food Network (Sunny Anderson's recipe)

So that one challah recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day had three lives from one batch.  Two loaves of challah, some beignets and, with the remainder of the two baked loaves, this Double Chocolate Bread Pudding.  I first saw this dish on Sunny Anderson's show on Food Network.  Despite being a baking hobbyist, I don't watch Food Network as much as most people think I do.  I watch Cupcake Wars religiously but don't really follow any other show on there.  What I do watch is usually whatever's on when I'm working out at home.  Depending on when I'm working out, more often than not, the only shows that seem to be on are Chopped and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  But on a fluke, I caught Sunny's show and she was making this bread pudding.

She made it look easy so I pulled the recipe off the website and have been hanging onto it until I had bread I wanted to use up (challah experiment - check) and it was on a workout day for the calorie burn (5-mile run before baking this - check).

I only made a half recipe because I didn't want that much bread pudding (I wasn't going to run from West Coast to East Coast for the calorie burn after all) and I didn't have enough bread for a full batch anyway.  Instead of croissants and cinnamon raisin bread, I used the challah.  I listed Sunny's original recipe below but you can probably use any bread you wish.  Bread pudding is generally very forgiving.  Sometimes it's hard to tell when bread pudding is done especially chocolate since you can't always go by how brown it is (chocolate is brown to start with!) but for this one, it was easy because the bread pudding puffed out beautifully and you can tell the custard had cooked.  It was pretty good and I liked the added cinnamon flavor.  If you're not using cinnamon raisin bread, you could probably even increase the cinnamon by 1/2 to 1 teaspoon.

1 loaf cinnamon-raisin bread, cut into 1-inch squares
6 croissants, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
6 eggs
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 to 6 scrapes of fresh nutmeg, on a rasp
1 1/2 quarts milk
1 1/2 cups chocolate syrup (I used Trader Joe's Midnight Moo)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Special equipment: 3 1/2-quart oval baking dish

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Prepare the bottom and sides of the baking dish with the butter. In a large bowl, add the bread and croissant chunks along with the chocolate chips sprinkled over the top. Toss gently and pour into the prepared dish making sure all the chocolate chips don't settle on the bottom.
3. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk, chocolate syrup, and salt.
4. Pour the chocolate custard over the bread and chocolate in the dish and press the bread down into the custard to soak it up. Allow to rest for 10 minutes. Then press down a bit again.
5. Bake uncovered until the edges are golden brown and the center springs back a bit when touched, 45 to 50 minutes. Allow it to cool and settle for about 30 minutes and then make pretty squares, or just dig in right away.