Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding

I made my first bread pudding, and my first brioche in the process. Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle (soon to be A Baking Blog as she moves to the Upper West Side) chose Dorie's Chocolate Bread Pudding for our Tuesdays With Dorie recipe. Usually, I pretty much wait until the last minute to do everything. It's not something I'm proud of, but it is something I accept as part of my personality. Occasionally I try to overcome it and plan ahead a little. I am glad that I was in that mode this week with this recipe, because although there are short cuts, you want to start with a good bread, and let it get stale, before you make your bread pudding.

So luckily I started several days in advance by making the brioche dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day. I realize Dorie has a brioche recipe, but I was intimidated by her story of making brioche with a wooden spoon when she "huffed and puffed harder than when I had run a half marathon". She suggests not using a hand mixer because "in all likelihood, the mixing will wear out the motor". I don't have a stand mixer, and I knew the spoon mixing would wear out my motor. Someday I will try Dorie's brioche, but because I am a wimp and because I have been loving my Artisan Bread in Five book and want to make every recipe in there, I made a batch of brioche that makes four, one pound loaves. I baked a loaf, sliced it, and set it out to stale.



Isn't that gorgeous? I did also toast it in the oven for ten minutes to make sure it was dry enough on baking day. This recipe was very easy. I had some half and half I needed to use, so I used it in the custard.



The custard gets poured over the cubed bread.



Someone in the TWD problems and questions described this looking like a dish of mud...or something worse. I wasn't sure if I should take it to a party I was going to. It didn't seem like a party type food, and it wasn't super attractive.



Since I am a procrastinator and had nothing else to take, I took it to the party. Some of the guests became too intoxicated to have dessert. But one guest, S, whom according to the hostess, and I quote, "most likely has an attractive penis" (she was not drunk when she said this), ate about half of the dish. A couple others who tried it also liked it; even my husband, who does not like bread pudding. I have been eating the leftovers chilled for breakfast. I will definitely make this again.

And with some of the leftover brioche dough, I tried my first braided bread:

15 comments:

chocolatechic said...

Mine looked like mud soup.

spike. said...

I'm wicked impressed by/jealous of your bread making skills.

Jennifer said...

Sorry that I was too drunk to eat your bread pudding! It really looked delicious.

Your braided bread is so pretty. I am with Spike, totally jealous!

snicketmom said...

This was the first time I have ever made brioche or ever braided bread. I credit the great results to Artisan Bread in 5 and their blog, which gives super easy instructions.

Laura said...

I love it when things are taken out of context to make me look like a wierdo pervert!

:)

I still think I am correct - that it is all based upon what our society holds as attractive and a woman's pressure to look a certain way.

Only you could write a blog post combining the wonders of bread pudding and penii. I don't know if penii is a word, but it looks and sounds cool!

Laura said...

BTW I'm glad my husband doesn't read blogs.

Cathy said...

That sounds like quite a party! But since the category was "most likely" as opposed to "most attractive," at least we know things did not get too wild. Your brioche looks amazing! I made Dorie's (after months of wanting to make it and chickening out) and it came out good, but I am so eager to try ABin5's version - I love that book. Glad you liked the pudding!

Megan said...

Yeah! I made my own brioche from the same book!

Awesome looking braid - I went the easy route and made rolls! :)

Anonymous said...

How awesome is it that you made your own brioche!? I'm glad your bread pudding was a success.

Unknown said...

Congrats on making your own brioche and your first bread pudding! It was my first time making and trying bread pudding and I thought this one was delicious!

Amber Marie said...

You made a brioche for this! Awesome :) And the braided bread looks great.

AmyRuth said...

Gee my hubs doesn't read my posts either. Interesting! You crack me up and I am most impressed with your first effort at braiding the bread dough. Beautiful! Maybe there is hope.
Glad you enjoyed your efforts.
AmyRuth

Piggy said...

lots of bloggers gave rave reviews about this bread-making book, and after seeing your brioche, I'm gonna order the book from Amazon right away!

TeaLady said...

That brioche and challah look just perfect. Great job. And the bread pudding may not look good, but sounds like it tasted that way.

Anonymous said...

I made homemade brioche, also, but used the recipe in Baking with Julia. It uses a stand mixer and works great.

I have the five book, and have made lots of other kinds of bread and they have been great. I'll have to try the brioche!