Broodpudding

Next time your bread goes stale, give it a second chance! Stale bread can be turned into plenty of delicious things, from French Toast to bread crumbs. But perhaps the tastiest way of all to use up your old bread is by making bread pudding. Or as we call it in Belgium, "broodpudding."

To celebrate Belgian National Day this year, we baked up our own version of this decadent comfort food using two day old challah bread. We like using challah because it is rich and slightly sweet, making it the perfect addition to the creamy custard of the pudding. We also added cold espresso to the recipe, which doesn't come through in the final taste, but serves to bring out the flavour of the chocolate.

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to bake on 190ºC, making sure to have the baking rack in the middle of the oven.
2. Take the stale bread and cut it into 1” cubes. (This step can be done up to a day in advance to dry out the bread faster.) Place the bread cubes on a cookie sheet and toast for 10-12 minutes until they are a golden brown color. Set aside to cool.
3. Scale the whole milk, single cream, espresso, eggs, yolks, sugar and extract into a large mixing bowl. Whisk them to combine all of the ingredients.
4. Measure out the bittersweet chocolate and chop into small pieces (if not using chocolate chips) and add to the bowl, reserving some.
5. Add the bread and ½ of the chocolate to the liquid ingredients and toss until the bread is well coated.
6. Pour the mixture into a  22 x 33 cm baking dish and sprinkle the remaining chocolate on top. With a hand or a spatula, press the bread mixture down firmly to ensure it is layered evenly throughout the dish so it will bake evenly.
7. Pour the melted butter over the top of the bread mixture and sprinkle with the remaining 30g of sugar.
8. Bake the broodpudding for 30-35 minutes until the top layer is a deep golden brown or the internal temperature reaches 70ºC.
9. Allow the broodpudding to cool slightly and top with fresh berries and icing sugar before serving.