It has the basic bread pudding recipe. All I do is add some chopped up good chocolate or chocolate chips. Another good thing to do is to use chocolate bread. I've seen chocolate bread in Grain d'Or bakeries.

It's important that the bread cubes are really dry so that they soak up the milk and egg mixture before you bake it. If the bread isn't really stale, cut it into cubes and put it on a cookie sheet in a 200 degree over for an hour and a half, stirring them a couple of times.

Beat the eggs on high speed in an electric mixer for about three minutes, or by hand by a person with strong arms for about six minutes. Add the sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. Of vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon and butter. Beat for a minute until well blended. Add the milk, nuts and chocolate and mix.

Grease or butter a bread or lasagne pan that is just large enough to hold all the bread cubes. Put the bread into the pan and pour the egg and milk mixture over it. Stir it up a couple of times.

At this point, Pp recommends letting it sit for 45 minutes, but we busy yuppies can't wait around like that. Turn the oven to 350 degrees and stir the pudding again. When the oven is hot, stir the pudding one last time and put it in the oven. Immediately lower the temperature to 300 degrees. After 40 minutes, turn the oven up to 425 degrees and let it bake another 15 to 20 minutes.

While the pudding is baking, whip the cream with the rest of the vanilla and powdered sugar to taste. Since the pudding is sweet, I like to keep the cream light, and I don't whip it to the point that it gets stiff. It's going to melt on the hot pudding anyway, and it has more body if it is kept a little creamy.

When you take this pudding out of the oven all the chocolate fanatics in the house will be swooning. The aroma is incredible. It's not as complicated as the recipe seems, mostly because it's pretty foolproof. This is one of those recipes where even if you make a mistake, like if the top burns a little, or if you don't beat the eggs enough, it may not be perfect - but I'll guarantee it won't get thrown away!