Caramelized Bread Pudding With Chocolate & Cinnamon |
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Prep Time: 25 Minutes Cook Time: 1 Minutes |
Ready In: 26 Minutes Servings: 8 |
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This is a layered custardy bread pudding from the James Beard-nominated LA chef, Suzanne Goin. She has been making it for 20 years. Use just a single layer of brioche, which creates a crispy crust but won't absorb all the rich, silky custard underneath. Once you break through the caramelized, toasty top layer and dig down through the luscious custard, a treasure of melted chocolate awaits you at the bottom. Recipe was printed in her excellent cookbook, Sunday Suppers at Lucques: Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table Ingredients:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened |
4 -5 slices brioche bread (pepperidge farm works well) or 4 -5 slices good quality white bread, 1/4-inch thick, crusts removed (pepperidge farm works well) |
3 extra-large eggs |
2 extra-large egg yolks |
1/4 cup brown sugar |
1 1/2 cups heavy cream |
1 1/4 cups whole milk |
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract |
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon |
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg |
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt |
3/4 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate |
1 tablespoon granulated sugar, for caramelizing the top |
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the softened butter on one side of the brioche. Cut each slice in half on the diagonal and then again into quarters.
2. Whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, and brown sugar in a large bowl. Add the cream, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt, whisking to combine well.
3. Sprinkle the chocolate over the bottom of a 9-by-9-inch (or equivalent) baking dish. Arrange the brioche, buttered side up, with slices overlapping just slightly, on the chocolate (there should be just a single layer of bread). Pour the custard over the bread, pressing down with your fingers to make sure the bread soaks it up. Place the bread pudding in a roasting pan, and pour warm water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the pudding dish. Bake about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the custard is set and the bread puffs up slightly. The pudding will be springy to the touch.
4. Let the bread pudding cool at least 10 minutes.
5. If you have a kitchen blowtorch, sprinkle the sugar over the top, and torch to brown and caramelize. If you don't have a torch, You run the pudding under the broiler to caramelize, but be careful not to curdle the custard underneath. Serve the bread pudding from the baking dish at the table, using a big spoon.
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