bread pudding cakes with toasted almonds and chocolate sauce

By ctozzi

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter plus more for cake pans
• Demerara sugar for cake pans
• 6 tablespoons slivered almonds
• 1 fresh (moist) vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 6 (1/4-inch-thick) slices from a large brioche or challah loaf, crust removed
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 cup almond flour
• 7 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg whites
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 1 tablespoon maraschino liquor

Preparation

Step 1

Special equipment: 6 half sphere cake pans, 3 x 1 1/2 inches

Heat oven to 350°. Grease cake pans with butter and dust bottom and sides with Demerara sugar. Spread almonds on a baking sheet and bake, stirring once, until lightly golden, about 3 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

In a small saucepan, combine butter and vanilla; heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until butter is melted. Scrape seeds from vanilla pod into butter; discard pod. Transfer vanilla butter to a large bowl.

Place brioche in a bowl, cover with milk and let sit for 10 minutes. Squeeze brioche to extract milk; discard milk. Transfer brioche to bowl with butter; add all-purpose flour, almond flour, 5 tablespoons granulated sugar, egg yolks and egg. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat egg whites with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar until whites hold soft peaks; fold into brioche mixture.

Transfer batter to prepared pans. Set pans on a baking sheet and bake, rotating baking sheet once halfway through, until cakes are golden with darkened edges and cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cakes can be made ahead and kept at room temperature, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 2 days.

To serve, in a medium saucepan, bring 1 cup water to a simmer. Add chocolate and maraschino liquor; whisk together until sauce is smooth. Remove bowl from heat and let sauce cool to room temperature, then transfer to serving bowls, top with cakes (dome-side up), sprinkle with reserved almonds and serve.