Chocolate Bread Pudding

I made bread pudding this weekend, instead of canning apples which is what I original planned to do. I improved on my previous recipe and made it yummy and gooier than before and used half a loaf of stale bread from the loaf I made earlier in the weekend. It was a loaf of no-knead bread which was awesome when it was fresh and warm out of the oven. However, I need to figure our a better way to store homemade bread because it always dries out. I've tried putting it in a plastic bread box (becomes sweaty and soggy) and I've tried wrapping it in a couple of kitchen towels and leaving it on the counter. Any other suggestions on bread storage would be most welcome. Anyhow, the half loaf that we had left after lunch yesterday was dried and not quite edible this morning. So I decided to transform it into something much more decadent than stale bread. 

Prep Time: 5-10 min + 45 min in the oven.

Ingredients:

1. 3 cups of stale home-made bread pieces, coarsely torn with your hands
2. 4 tbsp Raisins
3. 1/2 cup Non-Dairy Chocolate Chips
4. 1/8 cup Slivered Almonds
5. 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
6. 2 tbsp Chia Seeds
7. 2 tsp Cinnamon
8. 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
9. 2.5 cups Almond Milk (Silk PureAlmond Unsweetened)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a 2.5 qt covered casserole dish. Spread bread all across the bottom in an even layer. Sprinkle raisins, Chia seeds, chocolate chips, brown sugar, almonds and cinnamon across the bread, as evenly as possible. Mix vanilla extract in 2 cups milk and pour it slowly across the entire dish, so as to soak as much of the bread as possible. Cover and bake for 45 minutes. Once done, remove from oven. Uncover, pour the remaining 1/2 cup of almond milk across the pan and re-cover. Let sit for 5-10 minutes to allow the excess milk to get absorbed and for the dish to cook down. At this point all the bread should be soft and gooey and the chocolate should have melted all over the bread. 

If it is not evenly melted, and the bread is still hard, make sure you add more milk and re-bake for 15-20 minutes to get the desired softness. Serve warm. 

My Assessment: Adding the brown sugar instead of maple syrup (my original recipe) makes for a thicker more yummy dish. Also, adding raisins to this dish added a new dimension this time. Even Tony loved it!!! My job is done :)