The Fireless Cook Book / A Manual of the Construction and Use of Appliances for Cooking by Retained Heat, with 250 Recipes

by Margaret Johnes Mitchell

Chocolate Bread Pudding

• 1 qt. milk
• 1 pt. soft breadcrumbs
• 2 oz. or squares chocolate
• ²⁄₃ cup granulated sugar
• 2 or 3 eggs
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Scald the milk, add the crumbs, and soak them for one-half hour. Separate the eggs, reserving two of the whites for a meringue. Beat the three yolks and one white of egg together and mix them with half the granulated sugar. Melt the chocolate in a pudding pan set in a cooker-pail of boiling water, add the remaining half of the granulated sugar, and, gradually, the bread and milk, stirring it in well while still over the boiling water. Then add the yolks of eggs, salt, and vanilla. Stir it constantly, and cook it over the water until the pudding is 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Set the pail containing the pudding pan in a cooker for from one to two hours. When done, put it into a baking-dish suitable for serving, and cover the top with a meringue made by beating the whites of eggs till stiff, and adding the powdered sugar. Brown the meringue in a very hot oven, watching it carefully that it may not scorch. Serve warm, with cream. If preferred, two whole eggs may be used in the pudding, and in place of the meringue use sweetened, whipped cream.

Serves six or eight persons.