This slice is, moist and  rich, filled with nuts and fruit and has a delightful orange and  chocolate flavour with a hint of spices. It may seem unusual but it works. More importantly it is a great way to use stale bread and transform it into something quite  delicious.

Chocolate Bread Pudding Slice

Ingredients

• 3 cups water
• 600 g of stale wholemeal bread or any good bread of your choice
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 cup of sultanas
• 8  dates, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup of almonds and hazelnuts together, chopped
• 3 heaped tblsp of dark Dutch cocoa or 5 tblsp of drinking chocolate (I did not have cocoa so I used 3 tblsp of chocolate flakes and 6 squares of good dark cooking chocolate as an alternative)
• 2  tblsp of butter or margarine
• the finely grated rind of an orange
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tblsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup of sweet marsala or sweet sherry

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C and line a 30 cm x 22 cm slice tray with baking paper.

Preparing the bread:

1. Cut the slices of bread or tear the bread if using rolls or other types of bread and  process using the metal blade  in a food processor till they are broken down and evenly shredded
2. Place the processed mix into a large wide pan or extra large bowl for ease of mixing
3. Add 3 cups of water and stir into bread. Mix  well using a potato masher to break up the bread and incorporate the water thoroughly.
4. Leave the bread to stand for 5 minutes. The mixture should be just moist
5. If there should be any liquid drain it off from the bowl

Preparing the chocolate:

1. Place milk in a saucepan and bring slowly to the boil over a medium heat
2. Pour the sugar into the milk and stir until melted.
3. Lower the heat and stir in the cocoa or chocolate  and stir till dissolved or melted
4. Stir in the finely grated orange peel
5. Add in the sultanas, dates, nuts, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and stir well
6. Stir in the sweet marsala and the vanilla extract

Making up the slice:

1. Now stir in the chocolate mixture into the bread making sure that it is all thoroughly mixed through
2. Stir in the beaten egg making sure that it is thoroughly incorporated giving a
   uniform texture.
3. Pour the mixture  into a greased tray lined with baking paper
4. I used  a metal cake lifter, or spatula to gently smooth the mixture in the tray

   

5. Bake at 180 Deg C For 30 minutes, then lower the temperature to 150 C for 15-20 mins
6. Test by inserting a knife or a skewer. It will be done when it comes out cleanly
7. Allow to cool in the tray for 10 mins then remove to a cooling rack to cool fully
8. Cut into pieces and dust with icing sugar before serving