Chocolate-Chunk Bread Pudding - Recipe

Bread pudding with molten pockets of bittersweet chocolate

I love to make sweet bread puddings with leftover challah or brioche, because they are already rich. Today's version is filled with molten chunks of bittersweet chocolate. Let's just say I find myself eating less challah on Friday night because I'm hoping there will be enough left to make this for dessert the next day.

The critical understanding of bread pudding is that it is a custard, albeit heavily garnished with bread. Once you realize that, and treat it appropriately in terms of ratios and temperatures, you have a lot of freedom to tweak the components and be assured of making a great dessert.

Speaking of ratios, I recently read Mark Ruhlman's Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking and have found it very valuable. While the idea of basic ratios for custards, pastry, sauces and so on isn't new to me, I've found it much easier to remember them and improvise. For example, I know now that 2 large eggs : 1 cup of milk is a reliable ratio for a free-standing custard like flan, and it works just fine for bread pudding as well.

I chose to bake this in one large dish. To avoid overcooking the edges, I do it covered in a relatively slow oven. Individual ramekins would be a fine choice as well; you could even put them in a water bath the way you do for flan or creme brulee.

Chocolate-chunk Bread Pudding
Serves 6-8
Lacto-ovo vegetarian

• 1 tablespoon sweet butter
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup sugar
• big pinch of salt
• 14 ounces challah or brioche, preferably slightly stale, most of the crust removed and cut into 3/4" cubes
• 7 ounces high quality bittersweet chocolate, in the 70% range, cut into good sized chunks - not a whole mouthful but a lot bigger than a chocolate chip

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F., using convection if you have it.
2. Butter a large shallow baking dish, around 8" x 12".
3. Beat the eggs. Whisk in the milk, starting with just a little at a time until the eggs are well distributed. Whisk in the vanilla extract, sugar, and salt.
4. Place the cubed bread in the pan. Pour the custard evenly over the bread and toss lightly, trying to get it to absorb without squashing the bread too much..
5. Add the chocolate chunks and again toss gently to distribute.
6. Cover the pan with tin foil and cook until it reaches an internal temperature in the center of 185 F. For me this took about one hour and fifteen minutes. You can also check for doneness with a fork, and as it gets close, by taking a bite. You want it to be well set, but not overcooked and rubbery.
7. Let rest ten minutes and serve it forth. A bit of whipped cream, a drizzle of heavy cream, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream are all very welcome. If you want to whisk a bit of good bourbon into that cream, don't let me stop you.

Burnt Sugar Flan (aka Creme Caramel) - Recipe

Flan, aka Creme Caramel, with Burnt Sugar

I've never made flan before, so I had a bit of trepidation when my sister-in-law requested it for her birthday dinner. I knew I could count on Mr. Bayless's classic to send me down the right path, and the trust was well deserved. I opted to raise the degree of difficulty by making a single, large flan instead of individual ramekins. It is debatable which is more elegant, but to me the big one is quite dramatic and pleasing.

I literally pumped my fist and whooped when I inverted the custard and it came out with one big thwump, followed by a beautiful waterfall of caramel. The interior was perfectly smooth and creamy - neither so soft that it was disintegrating on the plate, nor overcooked and rubbery.

By the way, and I've looked at a bunch of recipes, there is really no difference between flan and creme caramel. Either one is a rich custard, baked with a caramel sauce, cooled, and served inverted. You can find recipes for both flan and creme caramel using whole milk, whole milk that has been simmered to reduce like in this recipe, condensed milk, heavy cream, or any combination of the above, and with a wide range of egg to milk ratios, so I don't think those can be considered defining factors.

We all felt that we were flan purists, so I didn't opt for any flavorings beyond vanilla. Besides reducing the recipe by 20% to suit the pan I wanted to use, the main other change I made to the original was to take the caramel all the way to the burned sugar stage. We recently had a burnt-sugar gelato from Poco Caretto that has taken ownership of a full third of my taste-cortex, so it was a no-brainer to push the flan in that direction.

Although I haven't made flan before, I have made enough custards to recognize the basic schtick. Two details to really focus on:

• Strain it very thoroughly before baking. Like one pass through a medium sieve and then two passes through a fine sieve. You really don't want even a trace of scrambled egg or milk skin in there.
• Recognize when it is done. A knife inserted in the center should come out clean or nearly so. But you don't want to go until there is no jiggle left. It is going to continue cooking and setting a bit when you take it out of the oven. Look for a slight gelatinous wobble when you move the dish, but definitely not a full-on liquid slosh.

If you choose to bake this in individual ramekins, and you have someone that prefers creme brulee to flan, the custard will work just fine. Simply leave the caramel out of their ramekin, and then brulee some sugar on the top in the usual way just before serving.

Burnt-Sugar Flan (aka Creme Caramel)
Adapted from Rick Bayless' Authentic Mexican (which you should absolutely own)
Serves 6-8
Requires milk-simmering time + cooling overnight (large flan) or a few hours (indvidual)
Vegetarian and gluten-free; not-vegan

For the custard:

• 6 1/2 cups whole milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 5 whole eggs
• 5 egg yolks
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

1. Combine the milk and sugar and simmer in a large, heavy saucepan. Simmer for about 45 minutes until reduced to 3 1/4 cups, stirring frequently to avoid scalding.
2. Beat the eggs, yolks, vanilla extract and salt in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in the hot milk so as to avoid cooking the eggs. Strain very thoroughly (see discussion above).
3. (If you like, you can do this all the day before and refrigerate, just gently warm it before baking.)

For the caramel and to bake the flan:

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Place a 1.5 quart, deep round casserole (a standard CorningWare size) or 8 individual ramekins, in a big roasting pan, deep enough to hold two inches of water safely.
2. Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Stir once. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook without stirring until it begins to brown, and then swirl until it gets deep, dark brown. The picture above is deceptive because there is light shining through it. In your pot, it will look really quite dark and begin to have that distinctive burnt sugar smell.
3. Working quickly and carefully (melted sugar gives *horrible* burns), pour the caramel into the casserole or divide it among the ramekins. Immediately swirl them so that the sugar coats the sides and the bottom (if doing ramekins, swirl after filling each one). It will harden right away.
4. Pour in the custard.
5. Carefully fill the baking pan with 2" of boiling water. You might want to do that already on your oven rack. Cover with tinfoil.
6. Bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out cleanly, but stop when there is still some jiggle if you shake the mold. That will take about 30 minutes for ramekins or 45 minutes for a big one.
7. Cool thoroughly - overnight is best, but fot least several hours.
8. To serve, run a knife around the edge all the way to the bottom, cover with a plate, and invert. If necessary, give it a little thwack with your hand and it should come out beautifully, surrounded with a pool of burnt sugar caramel. Hell yes.

Heirloom Tomato Tart - Recipe

Heirloom Tomato Tart

While we are on a roll with the pastry crusts, let's not forget the wonderful savory possibilities! For this one I used the exact same crust as last week's crostata, but baked it in a tart pan and filled it with a tasty aged provolone, Purple Cherokee and Sungold tomatoes and basil.

A useful trick with fresh herbs is to add them twice; once early in the cooking for a deep, infused flavor and a second time at the very end, for the bright green notes.

You could serve this with a green salad for a light meal, or in smaller slices as an appetizer.

The tomatoes are of course going to give off a decent amount of moisture which will keep the bottom crust from being perfectly crispy, though it is still delicious. Brushing with olive oil first can help a bit. If you have the time, you could roast them separately and blind-bake the crust.

For a variation, you could substitute any flavorful cheese that melts well. Fresh thyme, parsley or rosemary would be good instead of (or in addition to) the basil. If you use the rosemary, mince it finely and only do the first addition - don't garnish with it.

Heirloom Tomato Tart
Makes one 11" tart, serves 4-6
Vegetarian (with dairy)

• 1 batch of the pastry recipe from this crostata
• small handful of fresh basil leaves, chiffonade (thinly sliced), divided in two parts
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup grated aged provolone cheese
• 2 large heirloom tomatoes, cored and sliced parallel to their base (not vertically), about 1/4" thick - don't use the top or bottom slice
• handful of heirloom cherry tomatoes (preferably of a contrasting color), halved
• sea salt
• black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Use convection if you have it, it will help get some moisture off of the tomatoes.
2. Roll the pastry out so that it is bigger than the base of your 11" tart pan by about 1/2" all the way around. Roll up on your pin and unroll over the tart pan. Push down into the corner and use a knife (carefully) to trim the top edge.
3. Brush the crust with olive oil.
4. Distribute the cheese and half of the basil.
5. Arrange the large slices of tomato, fitting them as closely together as possible. Fill in the areas between them with cherry tomatoes.
6. Bake for about 45 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. After about the first ten minutes of baking, prick all of the large tomatoes a few times with a fork to aid moisture release... even gently push down on them with the tines of the fork, without distorting their shape too much.
7. Remove from the oven and let cool ten minutes. Top with the remaining basil and a healthy dose of flaky sea salt and black pepper.