What do you do with a day old baguette that’s just a little too hard to eat? Why, you make Chocolate Bread Pudding of course!

3  1/2  cups milk (2% works fine)

4  ounces semisweet chocolate

2  ounces unsweetened chocolate

1/2  cup sugar

2  teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2  teaspoon salt

3  large eggs

8  ounces (about 10 slices) stale firm white bread cut into 1/4 inch dice or 1 bakery size baguette

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8×8 inch glass baking dish. In a small saucepan, heat milk to simmering over medium-high heat. (If you are short on time, chop the chocolate now. It will melt quicker!)

Meanwhile, in a 3 quart saucepan, melt chocolates over low heat. Remove from heat; with a fork or wire whisk, stir in sugar, vanilla, and salt, then eggs until combined. Slowly whisk simmering milk into melted chocolate mixture until blended. Gently stir in bread. Let stand 20 minutes to allow bread to absorb milk mixture, stirring once.

Pour bread mixture into baking dish. Cover with foil and bake pudding 40 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 minutes longer or until knife inserted in center of pudding come out almost clean. Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or cold and with or without vanilla ice cream. Enjoy every delicious bite!