This easy chocolate bread pudding takes me back to my childhood in Honolulu. I start with King's Bakery Hawaiian bread, also known as Portuguese sweet bread, then layer it with chocolate chips and creamy egg custard. It bakes up to a glorious puffed pillow of chocolatey goo. It takes all of 15 minutes in preparation time.
Ingredients
- 8 eggs, lightly beaten
- 4 cups of cream
- 3 cups of milk
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 2 T vanilla extract
- ½ t cinnamon
- 2 t butter
- 1.5 loaves of King's original Hawaiian Sweet Round bread, sliced into ¾
- 1 12-ounce package Guittard or other good quality chocolate chips
Directions
- 1Heat oven to 300 degrees. Whisk together first 6 ingredients. Set aside.
- 2Butter a baking dish. Arrange half the bread slices in the bottom of the baking dish so they cover the bottom of the pan. Don't worry about the size or shape of the bread slices, just make sure the slices cover the the pan. Sprinkle with half the chocolate chips. Cover with a second layer of bread slices and chocolate chips.
- 3Crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl and lightly beat to incorporate yolks and whites. Add cream, milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Beat briefly just to combine ingredients. Don't over mix.
- 4Pour egg and cream mixture slowly over the bread. Pour slowly so the bread is able to absorb all the egg mixture. If you pour too fast it will overflow. If you are going to let the pudding soak for a few hours or over night, cover with saran wrap and press gently to ensure all the bread is moistened. Otherwise you can bake immediately.
- 5Cook an hour and 15 minutes. Check after one hour by inserting a knife in the middle. If it is runny, it is not done. Check every 10 minutes after the first hour. You don't want to over cook, but it may take as long as 1½ hours to cook. When the pudding is no longer runny remove from the oven and let set 30 minutes before slicing. You can keep the pudding fairly hot for a while by covering it with foil.
