Chocolate Cherry Bread Pudding

Chocolate Cherry Bread Pudding

I was making Spouse's favorite Dijon and Demerara Sugar Glazed Ham for supper last night and wanted a good dessert for afters.  Regular readers of this blog will know that Spouse is very, very fond of a good bread pudding. She's also partial to dried cherries and of course, chocolate so I decided to put together this dessert to serve after that great ham. It was all very well received, although she seems a little suspicious in her contented state. She's probably wondering what I'm saving up the brownie points for...I thinnk I'll keep her guessing for now. ;)

The very simple recipe for that great glazed ham can be found here: http://rockrecipes.blogspot.com/2007/12/mustard-and-demerara-sugar-glazed-ham.html

5 cups bread cubes (Use any good quality bread. I’ve used day old croissants here but Brioche, French, Italian or Belgian bread is good too.)

Grease an 8x8 inch baking dish well. Toss the bread cubes with :

1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Whisk together:

1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1 1/2 cups milk
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
Pinch salt

Place half the bread cubes in the bottom of the baking dish and sprinkle with

1/2 cup dried cherries

Top with the remining half of the bread cubes and sprinkle with an additional

1/2 cup dried cherries

Pour the mixture evenly over the bread cubes, pressing down slightly to make sure all the cubes are soaked. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45-50 minutes until the custard is set and no longer liquid in the center. Let the bread pudding stand for about 20 minutes before serving.

Serve with a drizzle of warm chocolate ganache sauce.

Chocolate Ganache Sauce

Heat to scalding but not boiling

1/2 cup whipping cream

pour in 8 ounces chopped chocolate or chocolate chips. Let stand for 5 minutes before stirring until smooth.