Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

Happy Fall and everything pumpkin season! It’s me Jill (aka Foodtastic Mom) again, sharing here with Chrissy a must-make pumpkin dessert recipe that is totally tailgate party worthy. In fact, I made it for our own Cincinnati Bengals season-opener against the Baltimore Ravens. The Bengals won, which now has me thinking I’ve gotta make a pan of this pumpkin chocolate chip bread pudding for every game this season. I hope all my friends are willing to come to our house and help eat it. A slab of this decadence requires at least a quarter of flag football play to counteract its effects!

It is totally worth it though. When I saw Flavor Mosaic share this recipe for pumpkin bread pudding with praline sauce, I knew immediately I had to make it myself. Now while I love pecans, my kids aren’t always on-board with eating them. I think pumpkin and dark chocolate go so well together, so I decided to add some deep, dark chocolate Ghirardelli chips to the pudding and top it with the same gooey butter sauce, just minus the pecans.

And a word about this sauce for my Cincinnati friends… my husband and I are frequent visitors to a local Italian Cincinnati restaurant called Bella Luna that is practically world famous for their own bread pudding. It’s drowned in a rum butter sauce that is ah-mazing. It’s really more about the sauce than the pudding itself. Well, this recipe comes pretty close to imitating that drinkable, awesome sauce. And know that despite the two sticks of butter it calls for, I did pour less than half on top of the baked pudding, then drizzled each piece with a bit extra when serving. So, if you really want to, you could halve the sauce recipe.

However if you do go easy on the sauce, may I suggest seeking out this deep dark chocolate ice cream thanks to Turkey Hill? Talk about over the top. This dessert just went from decadent to divine! There are pumpkin recipes and then there are PUMPKIN recipes. This bread pudding is a must this season!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

• Author: Foodtastic Mom
• Cook Time: 60 mins
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 12 1x

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Ingredients

• 1 lb. day-old bread (french or italian loaf, soft-sided preferable to artisan loaf)
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 1 c. half and half
• 1 c. granulated sugar
• 1 can (15 oz.) pure pumpkin
• 3 T. unsalted butter, melted
• 4 large eggs
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice
• 3/4 c. dark chocolate chips (preferably Ghirardelli brand)
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 1 c. light brown sugar

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Instructions

1. Tear the bread loaf into small pieces. Spray a 9×13 baking pan with cooking spray. Place half the bread pieces on the bottom of the pan. Scatter half the chocolate chips on top of the bread. Place the other half of the bread pieces on top of the chocolate chips.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the heavy cream, half and half, granulated sugar, pumpkin, melted butter, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice.
3. Pour the pumpkin mixture over the bread and chocolate chips, pressing down on the top so all the bread is well coated. Scatter the other half of the chocolate chips on top of the pudding. Allow the pumpkin mixture to soak into the bread for about 20 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. After bread has soaked, bake the pan on the center rack of the oven for about an hour, until pudding is puffed and firm to the touch. Remove pan from oven and cool in pan on cooling rack.
5. Meanwhile, make the butter sauce. In a large sauce pan, melt over medium heat the two sticks of butter, cream and brown sugar. Stir often until mixture comes to a gentle boil. Reduce heat and allow sauce to simmer, still stirring, for about 5 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and cover. Pour half of the sauce over the warm bread pudding in the pan. Serve each slice with more sauce drizzled on top and dark chocolate ice cream, if desired.