How to Slow Cook Chocolate Bread Pudding
Chocolate bread pudding takes old, stale bread and makes it a moist, flavorful dessert. When prepared in a slow cooker, you have time to do other things while your bread pudding is cooking. When you are preparing for guests to come to your house, or are taking your bread pudding to someone's house for dinner, the slow cooker makes your life easier. Also, since it bakes into a solid dessert, you can transport it without a mess. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Saucepan
- Heatproof spoon
- Butter
- Chocolate bread pudding recipe and ingredients
Instructions
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1
Heat the liquid ingredients called for in your chocolate bread pudding recipe -- these may include milk, flavoring extracts, juice, and liqueurs -- in the saucepan on your stove. Melt chocolate with the liquid ingredients, but do not heat eggs. Turn off heat when chocolate has melted and small bubbles start to form at the edges of the pan, and set aside to cool to room temperature.
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2
Butter the inside of your slow cooker thoroughly. Hold it up to the light and turn it so that you can see any places where you have not yet applied butter. Avoid using cooking sprays or artificial buttery spreads, as they can leave a sticky film in your slow cooker that is hard to remove.
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3
Press bread pieces into the bottom of your buttered slow cooker.
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4
Whisk eggs thoroughly into the room temperature chocolate liquid from the saucepan, until eggs are fully incorporated.
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5
Pour the egg and liquid mixture over the bread in your slow cooker. Cover and refrigerate overnight to allow the liquid to fully penetrate the bread. This deepens the flavor while softening and moistening the bread.
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6
Bring lidded slow cooker to room temperature, then turn on and cook pudding on "High" for two to three hours, or until it starts to solidify and pull away from the edges of the cooker. Remove cover and cook on "High" for another 15 to 20 minutes. Do not heat slow cooker directly from the refrigerator, as sudden temperature changes can crack your slow cooker's ceramic cooking insert.
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7
Insert knife into the center of the pudding; pudding is done when the knife comes out clean. Serve hot, with your favorite sauce or freshly whipped cream.
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Tips & Warnings
Whether you are working from a vegetarian, vegan, or other restricted cuisine recipe, this technique will give you the slow-cooked chocolate bread pudding you desire. If you are using eggs, they should not be whisked into hot liquid because they will curdle. Allowing the liquid to cool to room temperature prevents that from happening.
For ease of removal of individual pieces of bread pudding, run a sharp knife around the edge of the finished pudding inside the slow cooker before cutting. That way, you should be able to lift pieces of pudding out of the slow cooker cleanly.
