Chocolate Silk Bread Pudding
Classic Home Desserts:
a Treasury of Heirloom
and Contemporary Recipes
from Around the World
(winner of both a James Beard Award and a Julia Child Award!)
by Richard Sax, 1994, Chapters Publishing, Ltd./2000
Houghton Mifflin Company
This is a
"must-have" cookbook. Trust me. No? Okay. The publishers tout it as "worth its
weight in gold". Marion Cunningham, M.F.K. Fisher, Maida Heatter,
Flo Braker and Nick Malgieri do not disagree. And if that is not enough to
convince you, please consider the fact that Classic Home Desserts won the
1995 IACP Cookbook Award in the baking category. It is a jewel!
“Now this is something else altogether – more a deep chocolate pudding than a
bread pudding – pure dark silk. It’s an old family recipe from Judith Dern in
San Francisco.
The bread crumbs (used in many older versions of bread pudding) dissolve and
melt into the eggs and chocolate as the dessert bakes, forming a smooth custard
that’s
rich without being heavy. Use only the best chocolate for this pudding.”
” ‘My mother made this for years,’ Judith Dern says. ‘My job was to take fresh
bread and tear it apart, then rub it between the palms of my hands into crumbs.
By the way, you can also toss a 1/4 cup of Kahlúa into the custard mixture
before baking.’ ”
Serves 6
4 cups (1 quart) milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter,
cut into pieces
4 ounces best-quality unsweetened
chocolate, chopped
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups soft fresh bread crumbs
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream,
for serving (optional)
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F, with a rack in the center.
Butter a
1 1/2-quart shallow baking dish.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, butter and chocolate. Bring
to a boil
over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter
and
chocolate melt.
3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon
and
salt. Add the bread crumbs; stir in the hot milk mixture. Pour
into the
prepared baking dish.
4. Bake until the pudding is set and slightly wobbly, but not liquid in
the
center, usually 45 to 60 minute; do not overbake. Let cool on
a wire rack.
5. Serve the silk pudding lukewarm or cold, with whipped cream or
vanilla
ice cream, if you like.
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