Chocolate Bread Pudding

We still had some rolls left this past Sunday night. I couldn't inflict them on my friends and family any more, so I decided to make a bread pudding. My kids don't like regular, raisiny bread pudding, so I decided to try a chocolate one.

In a greased 13 x 9 pan, I put a layer of cubed rolls, and about 5 oz. of cubed cream cheese that needed to get used. I put the rest of the roll cubes on the top of this. For good measure, I cut up a leftover powdered sugar donut (I needed to feed helpers, remember) and spread that over the top.

For the liquids, I mixed:

6 eggs
1 can coconut milk
2 c. milk
2 t. vanilla
1/2 c. chocolate sauce

I poured this over the top, and pressed down on the bread cubes so they could soak up the liquid. I could have let this sit covered in the refrigerator overnight. I just let it sit for about 15 minutes. I cooked it for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

This did not come out very chocolatey, so you might want to adjust that. We served it with extra chocolate sauce, and I think everyone liked it. (Especially compared to the oatmeal we usually have on Mondays)

On a normal day, this is a nice treat. Yesterday, Dave got up at 4 am to grade papers and do some itunes downloading. At 5:30 on a Monday morning, we were sitting in bed watching the season finale of Mad Men while eating chocolate bread pudding with chocolate sauce. It was positively decadent.

Waffles

Today we had waffles for lunch. I haven't been doing waffles too much lately, because they've been sticking to my waffle iron. I generally use this recipe except 1 1/2 time the amounts. This time, I used about 1/2 c. of coconut oil instead of the oil amount for the recipe. The waffles didn't stick, but they fell apart too easily. I used all brown rice, too. Next time I think I'll try 1/2 rice and 1/2 something else.

This is my brand of waffle iron. I really like it, because it's fun for the kids to have sticks to dip into sauce or syrup. With just the rice, they didn't stay stick-like.

To accompany the waffles, we had strawberry sauce from the freezer, maple syrup, chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Yum.

Here's the chocolate syrup recipe I used:

1 c. water
1 c. evaporated cane juice
3 T. butter
1/3 c. cocoa powder*
1 t. vanilla

Boil water and cane juice together 1-2 minutes for simple syrup. Add cocoa and butter, stirring hard until smooth. Remove from heat, add vanilla. Store in refrigerator.

This batch didn't get very thick. Sometimes I add a little coconut oil to help it thicken up. But then, it seems to be too thick. I think this will get thicker as it cools.

*The original recipe called for 1 1/4 c. cocoa powder, but that was way too much for my tastes.