Chocolate Bread Pudding

I am the queen of repurposing things. 

I made "brookies" the other night. For those of you wondering, that means a brownie and cookie together in one. The recipe that I used was a "healthy" recipe, which I am guessing is my first mistake. Anyway, it called for whole wheat flour and they were pretty dry. I was not pleased. Usually I make some tweaks in recipes... But this one I did not. And they were STILL dry/not sweet enough. 

So I put icing on them. Good, but still not good enough. 

Then I remembered: Bread pudding fixes dry things. Sooooooooo this was ultra experimental, but I went for it. I thought the idea turned out awesome. 

I halved it because of the amount of brookies I had. I was amazed at how simple it was. This is the recipe from AllRecipes.com:

Ingredients 

Original recipe makes 1 - 8 inch square panChange Servings

• 6 slices day-old bread

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)

• 4 eggs, beaten

• 2 cups milk

• 3/4 cup white sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I omitted this because I had chocolate in my recipe)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  
  

  Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Break bread into small pieces into an 8 inch square baking pan. Drizzle melted butter or margarine over bread. If desired, sprinkle with raisins. (I omitted these).
   
3. In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture. 
   
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.

Check out those bubbles. Results were great. Decadent, moist, and dense. It is something I might serve at a party of for a group with ice cream. Eating it on its own might be a little much. 

Because of the whole wheat flour, I will confess, it was a little "chewier" than a normal bread pudding would be. I didn't mind it. Boyfriend ate it but said "I don't know..." The reason I did this was just to see how things other than bread can work in a bread pudding. I have used bread, cinnamon rolls, and even bagels before. You can experiment on your own, see what else can work. It just needs to be a relatively stiff before you use it. 

All that mattered to me was that there was chocolate in it. Late Saturday night alone in the kitchen, I really didn't care about how chewy it was.

And with that, I'll leave you to your week. Love!! And Happy Mother's Day!