Italian Chocolate Bread Cake

This chocolate bread pudding is a recipe from my friend Chiara, and is a traditional recipe from her region in northern Italy. Made without eggs, it’s an easy way to make vegan bread pudding and tastes great. Think chocolate amaretti.

Chiara says: ‘There isn’t a fixed recipe for this cake: every nonna here has her own, and of course they all claim their version is the best. Another fun fact: this cake has a million names, depending on the baker’s location.’

The peasant origin of this recipe is the reason why it calls mostly for leftovers and pantry staples: stale bread, cookies (amaretti in the original version), raisins, pine nuts and cocoa powder, besides the milk needed to soak the base and make it creamy. The end result won’t be super sweet, because there’s no added sugar – almond milk, cookies and raisins will be just enough.

For some more simple chocolate recipes, try my double chocolate olive oil brownies, a healthier whole-grain chocolate snack cake, or no-bake chocolate puffed quinoa bars, sweetened with dates.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Cookies: the recipe calls for a crumbly vegan cookie to replace traditional amaretti. Use any simple cookie and choose amaretti if the pudding doesn’t need to be vegan.
• Add-ins: omit the raisins if preferred, and the pine nuts can be replaced with slivered almonds.
• Bread: a plain bread with a very light, airy crumb is best for this recipe, not something enriched. Think baguette, not babka.

Step by Step

1. Mix the bread: stir the pieces of bread with the almond milk to break down slightly.

2. Add the cocoa: mix in the cocoa and cookies, then stir again. Cover and rest.

3. Add the add-ins: stir in the pine nuts and raisins, mixing until you have a smooth batter.

4. Bake: transfer to a cake tin and bake for about an hour.

Recipe Notes

Traditionally, stale bread gets a good soak in whole milk, but the recipe has been tweaked to make it plant-based and uses almond milk instead. This is a win-win swap, because lightly sweet almond milk will be perfect not only to replace dairy milk, but to give the cake a unique and subtle flavour of amaretti as well.

The secret to achieve the perfect consistency is to let the bread and milk mixture sit as much as possible. Ideally, an overnight rest is best. You want the bread to fully dissolve into the milk, so that when you stir it, everything magically melts and produces a smooth batter.

How to Store

Storage: keep in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

Freezing: freeze your bread pudding in an airtight container for up to three months.

Expert Tips

• Use a small cake tin: You want to bake the cake rather tall and small, to avoid having a gummy and flat disc – about 5-6 cm tall at least, so be sure to use a smaller dish.
• Sweeten to taste: this isn’t a particularly sweet dessert, so if you have a sweet tooth, you might want to add some sugar to the batter.

More Almond Recipes

Honey Roasted Almonds

Almond Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies

Rhubarb Almond Cake

Almond Flour Brownies

If you make this Chocolate Bread Pudding or any other dairy-free dessert recipes on Occasionally Eggs, please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. For more OE, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, purchase the Occasionally Eggs cookbook, or subscribe for new posts via email.