Larry is thrilled that it’s September and time for the start of Fall desserts – apples, pumpkin, cinnamon and spice and everything nice. I, on the other hand, still do not like pumpkin. But I’ll make an exception for this bread pudding.

When I first saw the title of the recipe, I imagined a typical bread pudding, except with pumpkin, including raisins and soggy bread. Shudder. But no! In typical Baked style, this is a surprising and delicious twist on the classic.

I should note that a time commitment is required – there’s not a lot of hands-on work, but the recipe starts with making bread. That’s right – the bread pudding starts out with a pretty-tasty-on-its-own pumpkin bread that’s not too sweet and is studded with chunks of chocolate. I recommend making just the bread even if you don’t want to make the bread pudding.

There’s more pumpkin in the custard; this is where it starts to seem suspiciously like pumpkin pie to me, but I soldier on. What comes out of the oven is deep brown, hearty, and delicious. The bread stands up very well to the custard, and the chocolate is a delightful surprise. Maybe it’s still a little too much pumpkin for me, but Larry really likes it. It doesn’t suck – that’s about as enthusiastic as I can get for pumpkin.

For the recipe and to see how the other Baked Sunday Mornings bakers fared, head over to Baked Sunday Mornings.

• Chocolate-Chunk Pumpkin Bread Pudding (Baked Elements, p. 102)