Chocolate Bread Pudding: Buttery brioche bread cubes, eggs, milk, sugar, chocolate chips, and a few other simple ingredients are all you need to make this easy dessert!
We love a good bread pudding over here, whether it’s this popular bread pudding, banana bread pudding, bread pudding made with donuts (seriously, so good), or filled with chocolate! For all the chocolate lovers like me, this one might just be the best one yet.
Why you’ll love this recipe
Bread pudding is one of the best comfort foods – it’s easy to make, doesn’t require any fancy ingredients, and it’s so darn delicious. It’s also a great way to use up any bread that might be getting a bit stale.
This old fashioned bread pudding is made even better by adding some yummy chocolate flavor! This may just be your new favorite dessert.
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Ingredients
You only need a few simple ingredients that you can find at most grocery stores to make this simple chocolate bread pudding.
- 16 ounces brioche bread cut into small cubes
- 4 cups whole milk
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 cup chocolate chips
See the printable recipe card below for the full ingredient list and step-by-step instructions for making this chocolate bread pudding recipe.
Instructions
It’s so easy to make this chocolate bread pudding with cocoa powder. Follow along and see!
- Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and whisk together the milk, eggs, 1 cup sugar, and melted butter in a large bowl until well combined.
- Add in the cocoa powder and cinnamon and whisk the ingredient again until the cocoa powder is fully incorporated into the mixture.
- Place the diced bread in an 8×8 baking dish and pour the egg mixture over the bread. Sprinkle the top of the bread pudding with chocolate chips.
- Bake the bread pudding for 1 hour, or until the middle of the pan no longer jiggles.
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
Substitutions
If you need to make a few changes, we have some suggestions!
- Dairy free – substitute the butter with a dairy-free alternative or your favorite cooking oil, and substitute the whole milk with your favorite dairy-free milk (note: thicker dairy-free alternatives will give the best result).
- Gluten free – use cubes of your favorite gluten free bread instead of white bread to make this gluten free.
- Milk – instead of whole milk, you can also use heavy cream for an even more moist and rich bread pudding.
Variations
This recipe is a variation of traditional bread pudding, which should tell you that bread pudding is definitely a customizable recipe! You can make a few or a lot of changes to turn this into a dish with some personal flair.
- Chocolate – instead of milk chocolate chips or semisweet chocolate chips, you could use dark chocolate chips (or even bittersweet chocolate if you like your chocolate flavor really dark and intense). You could also experiment with white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or butterscotch chips!
- Bread – you can use 1-inch cubes of basically any type of bread to make this bread pudding. Try French bread, challah bread, Italian bread, sourdough bread, or if you are really adventurous you could try cinnamon-raisin bread! If you use fresh bread it will result in a bit of a softer pudding, or you can use stale bread pieces for a bit of a firmer end result.
- Flavor – you can play around with a second flavor in addition to chocolate. Try stirring some sliced bananas into the bread cubes for a chocolate banana bread pudding. Add some orange zest (be sure to wash your orange peel first) to the bread cubes for a chocolate orange bread pudding (this might be a fun one for Christmas time, topped with some chopped Terry’s chocolate orange pieces)!
What do I serve with bread pudding?
You can serve this chocolate bread pudding recipe just as it is, but it would also be delicious with a scoop of ice cream or topped with whipped cream!
Storage
You can store any leftover chocolate bread pudding in a dish covered with plastic wrap or in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Expert Tips and FAQs
The obvious answer to this is that it tastes like bread pudding with melted chocolate in it! Bread pudding is a delicious dessert that’s sort of a cross between cake and pudding. It’s soft like pudding, but has some of the texture of a cake. Altogether, it’s delicious!
I do not recommend freezing this bread pudding dish. It changes the texture and flavor a little bit.
You know what? You can eat it either way! Warm bread pudding is delicious fresh out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but it’s also good chilled and served with a cup of coffee. It’s even delicious at room temperature; there’s really not a wrong way to eat this easy chocolate bread pudding.
Another recipe to try
If you love bread pudding as much as we do, then you’ll want to give this croissant bread and butter pudding a try too!
Did you make this? I’d be so grateful if you left a review below to let me know what you thought! Then, the next time you need a quick and easy recipe, come back to Fantabulosity to browse all of my easy recipes!
📖 Recipe
Chocolate Bread Pudding
Ingredients
- 16 ounces brioche bread cut into small cubes
- 4 cups whole milk
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and whisk together the milk, eggs, sugar, and melted butter until well combined.
- Add in the cocoa powder and cinnamon and whisk the ingredient again until the cocoa powder is fully incorporated into the mixture.
- Place the diced bread in an 8×8 baking pan and pour the egg mixture over the bread.
- Sprinkle the top of the dish with chocolate chips and bake the bread pudding for 1 hour, or until the middle of the pan no longer jiggles.
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Katie says
This is fun as a dessert or breakfast! I love the rich chocolatey flavor.
Allyssa says
This is so quick and easy to make chocolate bread pudding recipe! Really loved how flavorful it is, highly recommended! Will have this again!
Jen says
INCREDIBLE. My husband and I loved this chocolate bread pudding! It was so easy too!