Why You Should Try Bread Pudding
Bread pudding is a classic dessert that has been around for centuries and continues to evolve. One of the most beloved variations of the traditional recipe is chocolate bread pudding. Whether you are a veteran baker or just starting, understanding what type of bread creates the best chocolate bread pudding when cooked with cocoa powder and milk can seem daunting. Here are the types of bread used for chocolate bread pudding and tips for making it. Brioche bread is an enriched dough with sugar, butter, and eggs. The bread is soft and spongy with a soft crust. A slightly sweet dough will go well with pudding because it contains many of the same ingredients. It is essential to use stale brioche bread because it is very soft.
Similar to brioche, but it uses eggs and oil instead of eggs and butter, challah bread is a traditional braided bread served during many Jewish holidays. Prepare challah bread for pudding in the same way as brioche bread because they are enriched moist and soft bread. In a French pastry, croissants are spread with layers of butter to coat custard bread. To make pudding croissant, cut the croissant into even squares as possible, and let the cubes sit for a while. Since croissants are crispy and spongy, they take less time to go stale than other bread.
Here are some tips to follow when making chocolate bread pudding. Fresh bread is too soft to use in the pudding because it will fall apart after absorbing the custard. Stale bread works much better. Cut a loaf of bread into thick slices, then cut them into a 1-inch cube. Let the cubes dry on a baking sheet for a few hours or overnight. To prevent the top of the pudding from burning during long baking, cover the pudding with aluminum foil. Remove the foil after some minutes of baking, so the top of the pudding becomes golden and crispy. Lastly, instead of melted chocolate, add cocoa powder to the pudding. Adding a thick, semi-liquid ingredient to the pudding, such as melted chocolate, changes the texture and can prevent the bread from fully absorbing due to its thickness.