Chocolate Bread Pudding – Paula Deen’s only recipe that doesn’t have butter

I’m not a big dessert guy. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. I like pasta and sauces and beer. We must not forget the beer. But the other day there was a little arm-twisting going on at my house. People were a smidge tired of my delectable concoctions and wanted me to dig up a quick dessert recipe.

I first saw Paula Deen make this chocolate bread pudding on TV and it looked good. I hunted down the recipe almost 6 months ago but it languished in my slush pile awaiting the opportunity to rear its fattening head.

So I pulled out the recipe, we made it, it was easy, and we loved it. What I’ll reproduce below is a mix of Paula’s instructions and some slight modifications from me about the order of things. With all due respect, I found her recipe a jumbled mess because of the way it was worded and I ended up missing a couple of steps which I struggled to make up for. So here we go!

Ingredients

* 1 loaf of bread, cut into cubes (about 15 cups)
* 3 cups milk
* 1/4 cup heavy cream
* 1/2 cup coffee-flavored liqueur (I used Amarula Cream knockoff, Bailey’s or Kahlua would’ve worked)
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 1 cup packed light brown sugar
* 1/4 cup cocoa powder
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 2 teaspoons pure almond extract
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 6 large eggs, lightly beaten
* 8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Cut bread into cubes if you haven’t done so already.

Lightly grease a 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Place the bread in the baking dish.

In a bowl, beat eggs; add the vanilla and almond extracts and the cinnamon

In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, cream, and liqueur.

In another bowl, combine the granulated and brown sugars with the cocoa powder. Mix well.

Add sugar mix to the milk mixture and whisk to combine.

Combine the egg mixture with the milk mixture and mix well.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour the mixture evenly over the bread cubes; let stand, stirring occasionally, for at least 20 minutes, or until the bread has absorbed most of the milk mixture.

Bake the pudding for 1 hour, or until set; a knife inserted into the center of the pudding should come out clean.

Serve the pudding warm or refrigerate it and serve chilled. It’ll keep for a while… unless you offer it to people and they eat it. Bastards.

Serve it with whipped cream or a dessert sauce. It’s pretty good with maple syrup as well.