Chocolate Brioche Pudding

This is one of my favourite desserts.  A fancied up bread and butter pudding, but still super simple.  I found it about 5 years ago in a Donna Hay Magazine.  I have vivid memories of several times that I made it.

My gorgeous Cornish friend Verity came to stay with us the week before we got married. When I stayed with Verity in the UK, she was such an amazing hostess. Her cooking is truly incredible.  She has this knack of throwing things together that you wouldn't think are anything special but it is somehow out of this world.  We had some very funny, mischievous and lovely times over there together. 

She was so incredibly lovely to fly all the way over from the UK for our wedding and as we were cooking soul mates, I had a full week's worth of delicious meals planned to show her my appreciation for her support that week.  Only trouble was, I was so nervous about the wedding (not the marriage!!!) that I had no appetite and was nauseous all week!!!   I loved cooking for her while she was here and she was so much fun to have around me in that week and especially on the wedding day.    

This is one of the dishes I made when Verity was here.  I had my long suffering brideslave, I mean bridesmaid, Claire, my beautiful flower girl and our MC all over for a bit of an unofficial rehearsal dinner. This was dessert.

The next time I made this dish, I was 10 weeks pregnant with my first baby.  I remember obsessively overcooking it to ensure the eggs were cooked through!!!  Paranoid pregnant lady I was. ;-)

Ok, enough memory lane trips, here is this delicious dessert. Easy to make ahead and incredibly satisfying to eat!

I visited Movida Bakery a few weeks ago and in amongst their incredible breads, donuts, pastries and pies, I spied a loaf of brioche. I LOVE brioche!  I bought the loaf knowing this dish was in our near future.

If you can't get brioche (or don't want to make your own) you can use a sweet Greek style egg bread or a Jewish Challah as an excellent replacement.  Or regular bread or croissants if you prefer.

The best chocolate to make this with, in my opinion, is no longer readily available in Australia - sob!!!! Green and Blacks Butterscotch. Oh my goodness, that chocolate is incredible! Verity introduced me to it.  Now I use either Lindt caramel or one of the other ones pictured below. All incredibly good!  The caramel one makes a fab toffee crunch and the other Lindt in the red box adds a fabulous ooziness.  I usually like to use a combo of both.  Dark chocolate would be lovely in this dish too.

Chocolate Brioche Pudding

original recipe from Donna Hay Magazine, Issue 32

Makes 8-10 small ramekins, 6 medium or 4 pretty large ones!

Ingredients:

• 400ml milk
• 300ml cream
• 5 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup golden castor sugar (or regular castor sugar)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• Approx 200-250g brioche (I used half a large loaf and froze the rest for another time.)
• 250g of the best chocolate of your choice

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
• Tear or cube the brioche

• Break or cut up the chocolate in to smaller chunks

• Heat milk and cream in small saucepan until it just comes to the boil

• In a large jug, whisk together egg yolks, sugar and vanilla

• Gradually add the warm milk and cream mixture to the egg yolk mixture whisking to combine

• Divide the brioche and chocolate amongst your ramekins - you want a LOT of brioche in there otherwise the end result will be too runny. And I like to ensure even distribution of chocolate throughout :-)

• Fill the ramekins up with the custard mixture

• Place ramekins in a baking dish
• Pour hot water in the baking dish until the water reaches half way up the ramekins

• Cover with foil and bake for approximately 15-25 minutes (depending on the size of your ramekin)
• Remove foil and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until golden on top and the custard has set

• Serve warm.  

I made some of these in little gorgeous little baking cases I bought from Emerald and Ella and took them to the movies for my girls night out with my lovely friend Jen.  Not quite as nice at room temperature, but an excellent movie treat!!!

Happy baking!

Love Amy xoxo