Our second recipe is ready for your comments, links and photos. How did it go?

This was an interesting recipe for me. Generally, I stick to the recipe as written for the first time. This time I made a few changes.

I was going to make pain de mie, a firm French sandwich bread made in a four-sided lidded pan. I didn’t. Instead I used a loaf of my cinnamon swirl bread. I saw that there was cinnamon in the recipe and since the bread has the crumble topping it seemed like a good fit. I didn’t add additional cinnamon to the recipe.

The dark milk chocolate was hard to find so I used bittersweet chocolate. I debated whether to go with a lower percentage milk chocolate, but wanted a darker taste. I used a vanilla bean in the half & half/milk and brought it to a simmer. When it came time to add the hot liquid to the eggs, I added half to temper the eggs and then all back into the hot liquid. I was worried that the eggs might curdle if I added it all at once.

Overall, I thought the bread pudding was good. It was a bit sweet for me, but the flavor was really good. I liked that orange zest, and the dates. I might cut back on the chocolate next time.

My baking time was about an hour. I like a more browned, crispy top. I wish I would have had some ice cream! As the ice cream turn back into crème anglaise, the perfect sauce for bread pudding.

Next Up: June 26th Bouchons

July 10th Blue Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies