Dark Chocolate & Pomegranate Bread Pudding

This past week has been a whirlwind of new projects, collaborations, and planning of juggling the work schedule. We’ve just started the season at Vineyard Golf Club, where I work as a Baker/Cook and create dessert recipes for our members, from the classic Profiteroles to more unique versions of a PB&J using peanut butter ice cream and roasted red grapes.

One of the dishes that I’m excited to serve up this year at the club is this Dark Chocolate & Pomegranate Bread Pudding, a luscious chocolate custard swirled with Skylake Ranch’s Pomegranate Fruit Spread. Chocolate and Pomegranate? Yes! The sweet chocolate is the perfect canvas for the tart pomegranate, making it a match made in dessert heaven!

Where’s Skylake Ranch you ask? It’s a pomegranate orchard located between Chico and Durham in Northern California and produces enough pomegranates to make all of the gorgeous products above. Everything from fruit preserves, grill sauce, syrups, and juice, they’re squeezing the fruit to its last drop, and all to your health! Owned by Gail Brown at the helm of the pomegranate ranch, with her son Chris, who is the operations manager, and his wife Sarah, the official taste creator.

Skylake Ranch Pomegranate Products are all made with ingredients that are easy to pronounce, made with natural cane sugar. All of the products, except the marinade which has soy sauce in it, are gluten free and vegan, making them available to a wider range of customers able to purchase them. Zero pesky pesticides or high fructose corn syrup in them at all!

This recipe showcases the use of the fruit spread, a tart and sweet combination that pairs well with the dark chocolate. Swirled throughout the custard, it delivers an acidic but much needed break between all the bread custard sweetness.

Dark Chocolate & Pomegranate Bread Pudding

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup 7.5 ounces whole milk
• ⅓ cup 2.5 ounces granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons 1 ounce dark cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ loaf brioche about 8 ounces (or your favorite bread)
• 4 tablespoons Pomegranate Fruit Spread

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F and butter a baking dish (I used a 4 inch deep pan, 6 inches wide)
• In a small saucepan over low heat, whisk milk, sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder, and butter. Simmer until butter has melted.
• In a separate bowl, beat eggs and baking powder. Temper chocolate milk into eggs, whisking quickly to not cook the eggs.
• Add torn bread and with whisk, mash to have smaller bread pieces. Pour half into buttered dish, swirl in 2 tablespoons of Pomegranate spread, and then top with more bread pudding batter. Finish with the rest of the pomegranate, swirled on top.Bake until set, about 35 minutes. Cool and chill in the fridge overnight.
• To serve: scoop into small bowl, top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. You can also drizzle with caramel sauce, or top with fresh fruit.

• Visit the Skylake Ranch site and tell me which pomegranate product you’d love to try!
• Follow @SkylakeRanch on Twitter
• Follow Cooking with Books on Google Friend Connect
• Tweet the following message: Dark Chocolate & Pomegranate Bread Pudding w/ @SkylakeRanch products via @nella22 & giveaway of their pomegranate line! http://bit.ly/JXetWu
• Like  my Mustard Hoagie Rolls at Stonewall Kitchens

The comments are the official entry, there is no purchase necessary, void where prohibited. US mailing addresses only. One (1) winner will be chosen randomly. Prize will be shipped by Skylake Ranch. The contest ends Sunday, May 27th, 2012 at 11:59 pm Eastern time. The winner will be announced on Monday, May 28th via email and will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.

Disclaimer: I received their product line free of charge in order to facilitate this recipe and review. No monetary compensation was exchanged and as always, my opinions are my own and I’ll only recommend a product I love and use in my own kitchen.