I had high hopes for this weeks selection of “Four Star” Chocolate Bread Pudding (brought to us by Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle) but alas, my hopes were dashed along soggy rocks of toooo stale brioche.
One thing to note, this is a ridiculously easy recipe to make so if at first you don’t succeed try, try again. That said, this first attempt didn’t really work for me, but yet again I think the inedible result was due to user error rather than recipe architect. My brioche was too stale. Yes, you too can make brioche at home WITHOUT a standing mixer. One of these years I’ll have to post some advice about that enterprise among other things. My bread was at least a week old *gasp* and not kept very well so it really tasted stale. The stale taste didn’t go away after baking. So, I ended up with something that tasted like stale brioche that had been doused in chocolate milk and allowed to solidify…seriously unappetizing…at least for my tastes.
Some signposts for those of you who are thinking about trying this one…I’d go with fresh bread that was stale-ized in the oven for 10 minutes at 350, as Dorie suggests, if perfectly stale bread isn’t to be had. I think I may have used a wee too much bread as well. It’s not like I added a huge amount extra, but my suggestion is to just follow the recipe. Also go with a nice strong dark chocolate, probably at least 70% cocoa. Being the sugar freak I am, I decided to mix bittersweet with a bit of milk and it just didn’t end up with a good chocolate flavor. I used a round pan which was fine. After being in the fridge it was solid enough for me to actual make cutouts which is how I was able to do the plating you see in the picture above. I’m not sure if it’s meant to get that solid, but mine did! 
Here it is ready to go in the oven:
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Sorry it didn’t turn out the way you wanted it. That’s the beauty of cooking and baking you can do it however many times to make it right. From the picture if looks delish, though.
Yeah, there’s always tomorrow right? I definitely needed fresher bread.
I forgot to mention that I paired this with a creme anglaise. Whoops!
Sorry it wasn’t a success, but at least you tried. Hopefully next weeks tart will work out better for you.
I am so sorry this didn’t work out, especially since you do like chocolate and you tried to do everything right! Fortunately, it is an easy redo, but consider yourself warned…if you find that chocolate nirvana, have family ready to do an intervention!
Pamela and Leslie,
I’m 99.9% sure that I will probably like this if I can execute the recipe successfully. Someday I’ll find out, but for now I’ve still got that chocolate tart, a cheesecake, and another custard tart on my agenda for this month. Not to mention the cupcakes I’ve already made!
Leslie,
I already need a baking intervention. I can’t stand how much of the fruits of my labor I’m still carrying around! But it’s all for the blog I say!
Oh I love the stars so much, that is sooo cute.
Mermaid,
You know, I couldn’t think of a pleasing way to present this. I wanted to salvage something from this experience. Initially I was planning on just cutting out a circle, but when I was looking through my cutters I came across the star and thought that would make a nice presentation. I’m going to have to use that star again!