Chocolate & Cherry Challah Pudding

SO – what do you do with leftover challah?

We’ve always got leftover challah (or bread, brioche or croissants) and the best use (apart from everyone’s fave French toast) is of course bread and butter pudding. We were inspired by the Morello cherries from all the Hungarian cakes we were testing and excited by the chocolate in Philip Carr’s Chocolate Croissant Pudding (from our first book) and this is the result. It is a perfect dessert for winter which we created with leftovers in mind. The recipe was first published in ‘The OzHarvest Cookbook’ (2012), alongside many wonderful ‘food rescue’ recipes from some of Australia’s best chefs. We’d love to hear what you think!

Choc Cherry Challah Pud

An updated version of the bread and butter pudding. The assembled pudding needs to sit for at least 2 hours (but preferably overnight) before baking. The drained cherry juice can be saved and frozen for use in the future.

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Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs 5 minutes mins

Course Sweet Things

Servings 8

Ingredients

  

• 500 grams challah, brioche or bread (yesterdays)
• 1 small jar pitted Morello (sour) cherries
• 1 1/4 cups cream
• 1 cup milk
• 75 grams Unsalted Butter
• 150 grams best quality dark chocolate
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brandy
• 4 eggs
• cocoa powder for dusting
• cream or ice cream to serve

Instructions

 

• Grease an 8 cup ovenproof dish. Cut the bread into matchbox-sized chunks. Drain the cherries. Combine the cream, milk, butter, chocolate, sugar and brandy in a saucepan. Cook over medium-low hear, stirring from time to time, until melted and combined. Set aside for 5 minutes.
• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until light and frothy. Slowly add the cream mixture while you continue to whisk, making a thin chocolate custard. Soak a third of the bread chunks in the chocolate custard for about 5 minutes, then arrange them in the dish. Sprinkle with a third of the cherries. Repeat this soaking and layering twice more, using up all the bread and cherries. The bread in the top layer should sit unevenly so the top is not flat but has bits sticking up. Pour any remaining chocolate custard over the top. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 180C. (350F). Remove the plastic wrap and replace it with foil. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for a further 20 minutes until golden brown. Dust with cocoa powder and serve warm, with cream or ice cream.