Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding....using up the heels of bread in the time of corona virus

This post taken from my previous blog was originally directed to my friend Christine who is a bread pudding aficionado, and would apparently eat an entire pudding at one go if given the opportunity.....

Bread pudding is a great thing to bake in the time of corona virus since it uses up stale bread and doesn't require a lot of ingredients. This recipe is a bit fancy because of the addition of chocolate chips. I happened to have some left over challah, which has a great consistency for soaking up liquid. Ideally, the pudding should be served warm, shortly after it's taken from the oven, to optimize gooey chocolatey goodness. 

Ingredients:

• 100 g. chocolate chips ( I used about a cup or perhaps slightly less)
• about 4 cups ( 250 g.) of stale white bread broken into 3 cm cubes
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream (I didn't have any so omitted this ingredient)
• 2 cups of whole milk
• 3 eggs
• 1/5 cup  (40 g) of brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of dark rum
• 4 teaspoons of demerara sugar for the top of the pudding (I used a lesser amount of ordinary granulated sugar)

Methods: 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter a medium-sized baking dish and throw in the bread. Scatter the chocolate chips evenly among the pieces of bread. Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, rum and brown sugar, then pour the liquid mixture over the bread. Press the bread into the liquid with a fork and allow it to soak for wait 15-20 minutes before sprinkling the top with the sugar and popping the whole thing in the oven. Bake for 40-50 minutes until the top is nicely browned. Serve warmly gooey.