Chocolate bread pudding (baked custard)

Bring the milk and cream to a heavy steam with a vanilla bean, then to a boil; add a little of the sugar.

Whisk a little sugar into the eggs until slightly lightened; mix some sugar with the cocoa powder to prevent clumping. Add salt.

Grease a cast iron oval dish with a little butter by hand.

With the heat off, slowly add the cocoa-sugar mix to the liquid a little at a time; boil for a minute, then turn off.

Add the unsweetened and dark chocolate and the salt and stir in.

Whisk the chocolate liquid into the egg mixture a little at a time to make the chocolate custard; add the bread.

Let soak at least 30 minutes so the bread is soaked all the way through; ladle into the dish.

Bake in a water bath with water about halfway up the side of the dish, which evens out the temperature so the custard bakes evenly from edges to centre: about 40 minutes at 325F for this size.

Serve with the salted caramel creme anglaise on top.