Chocolate Hazelnut Bread Pudding Recipes

MOM'S HAZELNUT & CHOCOLATE BREAD PUDDING

Steps:

• Microwave butter and chocolate chips until melted, 30-45 seconds; stir until smooth. Cool. In a 3- or 4-qt. slow cooker coated with cooking spray, combine bread cubes and hazelnuts. In a large bowl, combine next 7 ingredients, mixing well. Add chocolate mixture to bowl; whisk until smooth., Pour egg mixture over bread and hazelnuts, gently pressing bread cubes to help them absorb liquid. Cook, covered, on low 4-5 hours or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm, dolloped with whipped cream if desired.

CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT PULL-APART BREAD

Steps:

• For the whipped cream: Add the cream, liqueur and confectioners' sugar to a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment. Whip on high speed until soft peaks form. Hold in the refrigerator until ready to serve, up to 3 hours. (Makes 2 cups.)
• For the pull-apart bread: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until light golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool completely. Finely chop and set aside.
• In a small bowl, mix together the granulated sugar, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
• Lightly brush the loaf pan with 1 tablespoon of the melted butter. Line the pan with parchment paper, leaving at least 2 inches of overhang on the long sides to serve as handles later. Lightly brush the parchment with melted butter, then dust the entire pan with 1 tablespoon of the cinnamon sugar mixture; reserve the remaining cinnamon sugar. Tap out any excess sugar from the pan.
• Unroll one tube of bread dough on a very lightly floured work surface. The dough should form a 12-by-15-inch rectangle; stretch the dough a bit if small. With the long side parallel to you, spread the dough with 2/3 cup of the chocolate hazelnut spread, leaving a 1/4-inch boarder. Sprinkle with the chocolate chips and then with 1/4 cup of the chopped hazelnuts.
• Unroll the second tube of dough and lay it on top of the first. Brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle with the reserved cinnamon sugar mixture.
• With a ruler and a chef's knife, mark the short side of the dough at 4-inch intervals. Cutting parallel to you, slice the dough straight across at each mark, into three 4-inch-wide strips. Next, mark the long side of the dough at 3-inch intervals and cut the dough, perpendicular to you, along those marks; you will now have fifteen 3-by-4-inch rectangles.
• Evenly stack three of the rectangles on top of each other so that the bottom piece of dough, without any sugar on it, lays against a piece of dough that does have sugar on it. Place the stack of dough into the loaf pan on its 4-inch side so that the dough fills the width of the pan. Continue stacking pieces of dough and placing the stacks in the loaf pan until all of the rectangles are inside the pan. As you go, you may have to use one hand to hold up the dough already in the pan and gently push it back to make room for all of the dough.
• Using a pairing knife, cut the dough in the loaf pan lengthwise down the middle, cutting three-quarters of the way through, essentially splitting the dough in half. Place the pan on a baking sheet, cover with foil and bake for 55 to 60 minutes. The bread is done when the entire loaf has turned a deep golden brown and the sugar is caramelized and bubbling up the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes.
• While the bread cools, whisk together the remaining 1 tablespoon chocolate hazelnut spread and the heavy cream in a bowl until smooth. Hold at room temperature until ready to serve.
• Remove the bread from the loaf pan while still warm, so the caramel does not completely set. Use a bread knife to loosen the sides of the bread that does not have parchment and then lift the bread out of the pan using the parchment handles. Remove the parchment and place the pull-apart bread on a serving tray. Drizzle with the chocolate hazelnut drizzle and sprinkle with the remaining chopped hazelnuts. Serve with the hazelnut whipped cream.

CHOCOLATE-HAZELNUT BREAD PUDDING

Steps:

• Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat 3 minutes or until chocolate melts, stirring constantly (do not boil).
• Combine egg whites and egg in a large bowl; gradually add hot milk mixture to egg mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Stir in liqueur, vanilla and salt. Add bread, tossing gently to coat.
• Spoon mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Cover with foil, chill 30 minutes or up to 4 hours.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sprinkle hazelnuts evenly over pudding. Place dish in a 13x9 inch baking pan; add hot water to pan to a depth of 1 inch. Bake, covered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 5 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Serve each bread pudding piece warm with 1/4 cup ice cream.