Chocolate Strata with Raspberry Sauce

Chocolate Strata with Raspberry Sauce
Originally uploaded by City Girl Lifestyle

Sometimes, very good ideas are born out of sheer laziness and forgetfulness. Take this chocolate strata – a few weeks ago, on a Friday, I was on my way home from a very long day on the heels of a very long week. I was thinking idly that dessert would be nice but, when I was on my way home, I flat out forgot to pick anything up (which is sad considering I was within half a block of Hello Cupcake on my way home).

And then it started pouring. And did I mention it was cold. In fact it was the perfect night to make homey comforting red cabbage but, as I was cooking dinner, I just couldn’t get excited about baking dessert. This is where a more motivated person would have pulled out the measuring cups and spoons and made something tasty but me, I was done for the day. I did think of making biscotti, just because it’s easy, but really wanted something even easier.

I was about to settle on some dark chocolate for dessert and completely give up on the baking idea when, reaching into the fridge for a red onion for the cabbage, I noticed that we had four eggs and some milk within days of expiration. And then I noticed I still had stale toasted bread cubes on the bottom shelf – the very same ones I had been promising to turn into bread crumbs for weeks but, since we already had a lot of breakcrumbs, never got around to blitzing in the food processor into breadcrumbs.

I hopped on MyRecipes.com, got a better sense of bread to egg to milk ratios in stratas and bread puddings, and went to work with what I had on hand. The result was exactly everything I had been wanting: homey, comforting, chocolatey, warm, not too sweet, custardy fluffly goodness with a touch of acidity from the raspberry sauce. I went heavy on the vanilla extract so as not to use additional sugar, but you could tweak the recipe to add sugar into the egg/milk mixture.

Lastly, I know today is tax day here in the U.S., so wanted to include a recipe that was easy and cheap – I love stratas but only make them when I do have leftover bread and some milk that needs to be used up – they are so easy and invariably delicious. For a savory version, see this recipe from a few weeks ago.

Chocolate Strata with Raspberry Sauce
Ingredients
4 cups stale bread, torn or cut into cubes (mine were about 1 inch cubes, but I also had some sliced bread – it was a mixture of stale baguette and stale sourdough bread)
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
4-6 oz dark chocolate, broken up into pieces (or you could use about 1/3 cup chocolate chips)
11/2 cups milk (skim milk worked fine)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup frozen raspberries
1 tablespoon agave nectar

If your stale bread isn’t crispy stale, then preheat oven to 350° and place bread pieces in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Grease the bottom of your casserole dish with the olive oil (CGL Note: you could use butter or cooking spray instead, I just really like the idea of extra virgin olive oil with chocolate and bread because of some desserts I have had at Spanish restaurants)Place the bread in bottom of a 8 x 8 baking dish coated with a touch of extra virgin olive oil (CGL Note: the casserole dish I used is about 8×8 but it’s deep – it’s about 3 inches high on the sides). Mix chocolate into the bread pieces. Combine milk, eggs, and vanilla extract, stirring well with a whisk. Pour over bread. Cover and chill 8 hours or overnight (CGL Note – that’s the way I have always made strata, but I only let this sit for about an hour before baking it, and it was still delicious) Preheat oven to 350°. Uncover strata; bake at 350° for 40 minutes and see if it is lightly browned and set. It may be, but if not, cover and bake another 15-20 minutes. In the meantime, simmer the raspberries over low to medium heat, mash them up to make them into a sauce and add agave syrup right before turning the heat off. Pour over individual servings of strata for utmost yumminess. Serve warm.