Chocolate Bread Pudding Cupcakes with Toasted Walnuts, Homemade Toffee, and Cream

By skidivr595

I had a little trouble with this recipe. The trouble lied mostly with getting all the bread soaked with the chocolate mixture and into the cupcake papers. My first attempt involved filling the cupcake cups with bread chunks then pouring in the batter. This proved very messy. My second, more successful attempt, which I really should have done in the first place, involved pre-soaking the bread chunks in the batter then scooping into the cupcake cups… One simple change and all was well.

Ingredients

• 3 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1-pound loaf dense white bread, 1 or 2 days old (I used Acme Pan de Mie, but you could use challah or brioche)
• 10 ounces Valrhona or any bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 8 large egg yolks
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped
• toffee from recipe above, chopped

Preparation

Step 1

1. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, whisk together the cream, milk, vanilla, and cocoa. Bring to a boil, stirring. Remove from heat, cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.
2. Chop bread into 1/2″ cubes. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.
3. Bring mixture back to boil and stir in chopped chocolate. Take off the heat and continue to stir until chocolate is melted.
4. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in a medium sized bowl. Slowly add the warm chocolate mixture, whisking constantly until combined.
5. Pour the mixture carefully over the bread cubes. Stir until all cubes are covered. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 15 minutes.
6. Set aside about 1/4 cup each of the walnuts and toffee. Sprinkle the remaining into the bread cubes. Stir to combine.
7. Scoop soaked bread cubes into cupcake papers until bread cubes are level with the top of the rim.
8. Carefully pour the remaining liquid into each cupcake filling until nearly full.
9. Bake at 350 degrees for ~22-25 minutes until set.

Assemble
1. Top cooled cupcakes with some cream
2. Topped with crushed toffee and chopped walnuts.