Full disclosure- this recipe was born out of a disaster. While my intentions were good, I wrote the worst recipe ever for chocolate and vanilla cookies. The taste? Amazing. The look of the final product? Like melted dice. I'm a bit of stickler for waste, so I held onto the cookie dough and stashed it in my freezer in the event of a worst case scenario of needing to find cookies[bribery] for my kids.
I know the chances of having extra cookies laying around the house are slim to none. At least in my house, there are never any spare cookies. But, in the event that you do find yourself among a bounty of cookies, this is the perfect answer to making good use of them. Instead of using stale bread to make bread pudding, we're going to swap it out for stale cookies- if such a thing exists. The end result is insane. Rich chocolate custard swirled around chunks of moist cookies with a crispy crunch on the top and a soft, melty center. It is heavenly. Bonus- any type of cookie will work in the recipe! So whatever you've got, you can make it work.
Bowl #1
5 whole eggs [275 grams]
2 cups [470 grams] whole milk
1/3 cup [30 grams] cocoa powder
1/4 cup [55 grams] granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of espresso powder, optional
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
On the sidelines:
7 cups [660 grams] stale cookies, broken into small chunks about one inch
1
Quick tip- we want the cookies to be super stale so that they absorb as much custard as possible. If you can, break them into bits and let sit overnight. If you're pressed for time, you can break them up into chunks, throw them onto a baking sheet and heat them in the oven for a few minutes to dry them out.
2
Toss the cookie chunks into an 8x8 baking pan.
3
In the first bowl, whisk all the ingredients together until thoroughly combined.
4
Pour the custard mixture over the cookie chunks. Cover and let sit for an hour so the custard is fully absorbed by the cookies. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
5
Bake the cookie bread pudding for one hour- the center will be set but wobble ever, ever so slightly. Remove and let cool.
