Chocolate Brioche Bread Pudding Bitter Blanc Food

BRIOCHE BREAD PUDDING WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE AND CARDAMOM

Steps:

• For the brioche: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, whisk the yeast and sugar together with the warm milk. Allow to sit for 5 to 7 minutes in a warm, draft-free place while the yeast blooms and forms a foamy raft on the surface. When this happens, your yeast is alive and ready to go.
• Whisk 4 of the eggs into the yeast mixture until thoroughly combined. Add the all-purpose flour, bread flour and salt. Start the mixer on low speed and mix for 2 minutes, until the dough begins to come together into a shaggy mass. Increase the speed to medium and mix the dough for 2 minutes more to activate the gluten.
• Add the softened butter 1 tablespoon at a time, allowing each addition to completely incorporate before adding the next. The dough will get very sticky. Continue mixing until the dough is shiny and smooth, 3 minutes.
• Transfer the dough to a well-greased large bowl, and cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise in a warm, draft-free place for 1 hour.
• After 1 hour, remove the plastic and scoop the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Punch down the dough by pressing it firmly with your hands until it deflates back to its original size. Spread it out slightly and fold the dough into thirds like a letter, bringing the top half over the center and the bottom half up and over the center. Place the dough back into the greased bowl, seam side down. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to chill in refrigerator for 6 hours or overnight.
• Grease an 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch loaf pan (6-cup capacity) with butter or shortening.
• Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and punch down once more. Scoop the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and flatten into an 8-by-12-inch rectangle. Starting from a shorter end, roll the dough up to form a log and place, seam-side down, in the prepared pan.
• Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and allow to proof one last time in a warm draft-free place, until the dough expands to reach the top of the loaf pan, 1 to 2 hours. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Beat the remaining egg and 1 tablespoon of water to make your egg wash. Lightly brush egg wash all over the top of brioche. Bake until it is deep golden brown on top, 35 to 40 minutes. (If you are unsure if the brioche is done, the internal temperature should measure 200 degrees F.) Allow the brioche to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool to room temperature.
• For the bread pudding: Slice the brioche into 1-inch cubes and arrange on a baking sheet. Bake until the bread cubes are crisp and slightly crunchy but not as hard as croutons, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool while you prepare the custard.
• Add the milk to a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Add the cinnamon, peppercorns and nutmeg. Smash the cardamom pods with bottom of a bowl or glass, just enough for pod to burst and release seeds and add to the pot. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds with the back of a paring knife. Add the pod and seeds to the milk. Bring to a simmer, then remove from the heat to allow the aromatics to steep for 10 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and sweetened condensed milk. Slowly stream into the infused milk mixture while whisking constantly.
• Add the toasted brioche to a 9-by-13-inch ovenproof glass pan. Pour the milk and egg mixture over. (You may have to add half the milk mixture and let the bread absorb it before adding the rest.) Sprinkle the white chocolate chips over the top.
• Bake until the custard is set, 35 to 40 minutes. If the bread pudding starts to brown too quickly, cover with aluminum foil for the duration of cooking time.
• Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.

CHOCOLATE BRIOCHE BREAD PUDDING (BITTER BLANC)

Steps:

• Method of preparing pudding batter: 1-In medium bowl, soak the bread cubes thoroughly in the heavy cream. Set aside. 2-In a double boiler melt the white chocolate together with the butter. Stir occasionally until smooth. 3-In a small bowl, cream the egg yolks together with your sugar until completely incorporated. 4-Once white chocolate mixture is smooth, slowly stir it into your bowl containing your egg yolk and sugar mix. Stir slowly until completely creamy. 5-Pour the egg and white chocolate mixture over your bread mixture and toss until the bread is completely coated. Set aside.
• Method for Meringue 1- In large mixing bowl, cream egg whites and sugar together with a hand blender on medium speed for 3 minutes. 2- Turn mixer up to high speed and blend vigorously until the eggs reach stiff peaks. It should look like whipped cream almost once you are done whipping. 3-Fold your bread mixture into your meringue softly. 4- Set aside.
• Ganache Method: 1-In a sauce pan, boil heavy whipping cream. 2-Stir in vanilla extract. 3-Put chocolate in a small mixing bowl. 4-Once cream is good and hot, pour over dark chocolate. Stir until silky and smooth.
• Assembling Puddings for Baking: 1-Preheat oven to 325'F 2-In two, 2.5 cup souffle dishes, (or five, 1 cup dishes) grease with butter liberally and dust lightly with sugar on all edges. 3-At the bottom of your dishes spread your ganche out evenly between the two pans. 4-Spoon your bread pudding batter on top of ganche until both dishes are filled up completely. 5-Lay dishes onto a cookie sheet and bake 30 minutes, shielded. (shielded: lightly lay foil over puddings, making sure foil does not come in contact with the top of your puddings. Just shield the tops of the puddings from direct heat from the oven.) 6-Bake for an additional 10 minutes unshielded. 7-Take out and let rest 5 minutes. (Do not cook any longer than 45 minutes tops. The pudding will dry out. [Meringue is extremely temperamental like that!])
• ( Side Note: I suggest making your glaze while your puddings are in the oven.) Method for Glaze: 1-Boil your milk with the sugar in a small sauce pan over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally so the milk doesn't scorch. 2-In a small mixing bowl cream your yolks with your cornstarch until it makes a paste. 3-Slowly stir boiled milk into your egg mixture while beating vigorously. 4-Add vanilla extract and stir. 5-Once cream is smooth put back into sauce pan and cook on low heat until it thicken. (Add a splash of milk if your sauce gets too thick in the cooking process.)
• Once puddings have rested, dust them lightly with powdered sugar. Top them off with as much hot cream glaze as you like. Serve immediately. These puddings are best served hot! I do suggest using Brioche bread, however if that bread is hard for you to find a reasonable substitute is any sweet and eggy bread. Sweet bread, Hawaiian rolls or Challah bread will work alright, though won't be entirely the same as Brioche bread.

CHOCOLATE BRIOCHE BREAD PUDDING WITH WARM VANILLA SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350F degrees .
• Melt 1/2 stick butter in a 9 x 13-inch glass baking dish.
• Cut brioche bread into 2-inch cubes, and press into the buttered dish.
• In a medium bowl, stir together all other ingredients (except chocolate chips), stirring to combine well, and pour evenly over the cubed Brioche.
• Sprinkle chocolate chips on top.
• Bake the pudding for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
• Warm Vanilla Sauce:.
• Meanwhile, place all vanilla sauce ingredients in sauce pan.
• Heat gently and stir often. Don't overcook, only about 5 minutes. Remove vanilla pod just before serving.
• Scoop bread pudding into twelve individual serving dishes, drizzle 2 spoonfuls of warm vanilla sauce over top of each serving. Heaven!

CHOCOLATE BREAD & BUTTER PUDDING

Steps:

• Melt the chocolate and cream together in the microwave, stirring every 30 secs. Warm the milk in a large pan.
• Whisk the eggs and sugar in a large bowl or jug. Pour in the hot milk, whisking as you do, then add the chocolate mixture and whisk to combine.
• Remove the crusts from the bread (these will freeze well for breadcrumbs). Use a sharp serrated knife to cut the loaf into 4 or 5 slices along the length of the loaf (approx. 2cm thick) - this is easiest if you score where you want to cut along the top before slicing.
• Spread one side of each slice with the spread of your choice. Roll the slices up, from the shorter ends, then cut each roll in half or three so you have 10-12 roly-polys. Place them cut-side up in a baking dish. Pour over the chocolate custard, making sure each roll is soaked. Cover with cling film and leave for at least 30 mins so the bread can soak up all the custard, or you can put it in the fridge overnight, if you like.
• Heat oven to 170C/150C fan/gas 3½. Brush the tops of the bread swirls with the marmalade, then bake for 45 mins until the bread has puffed up and the custard is just set. Brush with marmalade again for a glossy finish, then serve warm with double cream.