Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

This is MY version of "Pain Perdu" or "Lost Bread". With all the bread I make, there is often a heel of bread left in a bag and then the next loaf gets cut. Nobody seems to want a dried out, skinny old heel of bread. Now, I could make french toast or croutons, yes, but I've had much more success turning it into Bread Pudding. I cut up any dried out pieces of bread that haven't turned green yet, and put the cubes in a big bag in the freezer. When there is 4 cups of cubes, I take them out and make bread pudding.

I'm sure any bread pudding recipe will do. The trick to get EVERYONE coming back for seconds, is to replace the raisins with chocolate chips and the milk with chocolate milk and decrease the amount of sugar accordingly.

It doesn't look like much, but it is Really delicious! I use this slightly modified recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book:

Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

4 cups bread cubes

1/3 cup chocolate chips

2 eggs, slightly beaten

2 cups chocolate milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp. vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a 1 1/2 quart casserole, combine bread cubes and chocolate chips.

2. In a bowl, combine eggs, milk, melted butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Pour over bread mixture.

3. Bake, uncovered for 50 to 55 minutes or until puffed and a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool slightly. If desired, serve with vanilla ice cream.