TWD: Outrageously Good Orange-Chocolate Bread Pudding

Few things make my heart pitter-patter more than bread pudding. Done properly, it's one of my top 5 favorite desserts. (Done wrong, it's borderline inedible, but I don't like to think about such scary things so close to bedtime.)

This week's TWD recipe was for Bourbon Bread Pudding, but being a teetotaler, I made a few necessary adjustments. Since my "Bourbon Bread Pudding" didn't contain any alcohol, I figured it needed a new, more accurate name. How about...

Bourbon-less Bread Pudding
or
The Bread Pudding That Bourbon Forgot
or
Bread Pudding: The Prohibition Years
or
Don't Tell Dorie The Pudding Has No Bourbon
or
Are you There, Bourbon? It's Me, Bread Pudding

Don't get me wrong, those are all great options, but I like it by this title best of all:

Outrageously Good Orange-Chocolate Bread Pudding


Instead of making a plain bread pudding (yawn) I infused the cream with the rind of one orange overnight, to make sure orange flavor permeated every bite of the pudding. For the bread I used stale challah, which might just be my favorite yet. I've used brioche, croissants, and cinnamon raisin bread to good success in the past, but the challah had the best texture and flavor, I think, and it stayed nicely moist throughout the baking. Holla for challah!

Here's my other secret weapon:

I chopped up strips of freshly candied orange peel and added them, along with a big handful of bittersweet chocolate chunks, to the bread-and-custard mixture. The orange peel softened during the baking, so I had large pockets of juicy orange peel and melted, gooey chocolate studded throughout the pudding. Chocolate, orange, rich custard, crunchy crust of bread on top? I'm calling this

America's Next Top Bread Pudding



The hungry hungry husband is out of town, so I forced myself to make a half batch in little baby ramekins, because a whole batch of bread pudding + unsupervised me = serious trouble.

You know what else is trouble?



The ginooooormous mound of oranges and grapefruit I have shoved in my (perilously overloaded) refrigerator! SEND CITRUS RECIPES STAT.



Okay, so the condensed milk has nothing to do with bread pudding, bourbon, oranges, or silly pop culture references. I just also happen to have a ridiculous amount of condensed milk as well (oh my poor fridge) and am soliciting condensed milk recipes too.

Q: Are you a bread pudding fan? If so, what's your favorite variation? And if not--come over! This bread pudding'll convince you.

Q: Any ideas for yummy orange/grapefruit/condensed milk recipes? (Definitely not all at the same time.) Aside from key lime pie, that is...