Baked Pain Au Chocolat Pudding

A warm baked pain au chocolat pudding makes the ideal Holiday dessert for Christmas or Thanksgiving.

Served warm out of the oven with a scoop of ice cream, this festive dessert is surprisingly simple but an absolute showstopper when it comes to taste and texture.

Jump to:

• What is bread and butter pudding?
• Why this is the best recipe
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Baking pain au chocolate bread pudding
• Top tip
• Wine pairing for pain au chocolate pudding
• Variations
• Equipment
• How to store
• FAQ
• Other recipes to try
• Recipe Card

This pain au chocolate pudding is one of my favorite dessert recipes to make for Christmas or Thanksgiving. It is suitable for large numbers and requires very little of your time and attention, leaving you free to focus your attention on other dishes or to enjoy time with your guests. And anything you can make in 15 minutes and then give your attention elsewhere until oven time is a massive win for me.

What is bread and butter pudding?

Bread and butter pudding is a traditional British dessert (like Eton Mess) made from slices of bread that are soaked in custard and then baked in the oven. The custard soaks into the bread and makes it deliciously moist, but the top toasts in the oven, and the result is a delicious combination of textures. Bread pudding was developed to use up leftover stale bread and traditionally contains spices like cinnamon and nutmeg and often contains raisins and dried fruit, too. I developed this twist on bread and butter pudding when I was working as a private chef in France, and it's one of my favorite desserts now.

Love bread pudding? Try this eggnog bread pudding recipe, too.

Why this is the best recipe

1. The texture: Buttery and flaky pain au chocolat pieces baked in a spiced vanilla custard have the most amazingly moist and rich texture already. But then, the crunchy caramelized cinnamon sugar on top elevates it to new heights.
2. It's versatile: Without the nutmeg and cinnamon, this pain au chocolate bread and butter pudding works as a dessert at any time of the year. But there is something about the crunchy puff pastry and chocolate and warm baked custard that makes it the ideal dessert for winter and the holiday season.
3. It's so easy: It's honestly just a case of slicing up French pastries, slathering them in a super easy custard, and popping it in the oven. Guests will be so impressed with this dessert made from pain au chocolate but it is surprisingly much easier than it looks!

Ingredients

1. Pain au chocolate pastries: This pain au chocolat dessert works best with all butter pain au chocolat that are 1-2 days old. So if you're ever wondering what to do with stale pain au chocolate, this is your answer!
2. Eggs: We use both egg whites and egg yolks in this custard. Always use room-temperature eggs in baking recipes.
3. Double cream/heavy cream:
4. Full fat/whole milk: I use whole milk in this pain au chocolat dessert recipe as it adds extra richness to the custard.
5. Fine golden sugar: You can use white granulated sugar if you don't have golden caster sugar (fine brown sugar), I just think the caramel flavor from the molasses content adds something extra to this luxurious dessert.
6. Butter: Use unsalted butter for this recipe. In fact, I always use unsalted butter as I like to control both the quantity and quality of salt in recipes.
7. Vanilla extract: If you happen to have a vanilla pod, you can use this instead, but they are so expensive these days, and the essence works just as well.
8. Ground cinnamon: Cinnamon adds such warmth to this dessert, I highly recommend leaving it in!
9. Ground nutmeg: Nutmeg is another classic winter spice. You can grate the whole seed, or buy it ready ground.

See the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full quantities and directions.

This festive dessert for a dinner party tastes delicious after salmon en croute, and you'll probably love this Baked Alaska too.

Instructions

1. Slice pain au chocolate horizontally into three pieces and arrange them cut side facing up in a lightly greased baking dish.
2. Make the custard in a large mixing bowl. Whisk the eggs, milk, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla essence, and ground nutmeg together.
3. Pour the vanilla egg custard mixture over the pain au chocolat and place it in the fridge to soak for two hours.

Baking pain au chocolate bread pudding

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Bake the pain au chocolate bread and butter pudding for 30 minutes, then take it out of the oven.
3. Spread butter across the top of the pain au chocolat dessert with a knife, and then sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top.
4. Bake for a further 10 minutes until the top of the pain au chocolat bread pudding is crunchy and the spiced egg custard mixture is cooked.
5. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a light dusting of cinnamon.

Wine pairing for pain au chocolate pudding

Pair pain au chocolate dessert with dessert wine, ideally something sweet but not too heavy. A tawny port would work well; an Australian Muscat, Italian Amarone, or a Maury red dessert wine would all pair beautifully with this pain au chocolat pudding.

Variations

Here are a few ways you can adapt this recipe to suit you.

1. Pastries - instead of pain au chocolat, try plain or almond croissants.
2. Spices - try this recipe without the nutmeg and cinnamon to make it less festive.
3. Orange - add some orange zest to the custard to add different flavors and citrus zing.

Looking for something fruity to make as well? Try this fig pavlova with cardamom cream.

Equipment

You will need a deep square or rectangular baking dish to make this easy dessert recipe. Use a large mixing bowl to make the custard, although it can be easier to then transfer it into a jug to pour over the chocolate croissants.

I always recommend weighing ingredients on a set of digital scales and using a digital oven thermometer to be as precise s possible, especially when baking.

How to store

Cover and store any leftover bread pudding in the fridge and consume them within 2-3 days. You can enjoy this pain au chocolat pudding cold or gently reheat it in the oven for 15 minutes or until warmed through.

This dessert does not freeze well.

FAQ

Other recipes to try

Recipe Card