How to turn old bread and spent coffee into a sumptuous pudding – recipe | don't waste

When famed chocolatier William Curley visited our Poco restaurant in Bristol, we created a chocolate treat that included a French toast to use up our stale bread and served with a layer of chocolate sauce. We serve whole sourdough at Poco, and its malty nature works surprisingly well with chocolate. I gave the chocolate cream an extra punch with the addition of a teaspoon of spent coffee grounds, which is a surprisingly useful by-product that is full of aroma, flavor and caffeine ; I like to slip them into recipes whenever I can.

Chocolate and Coffee French Toast

In a country where bread is served at almost every meal, the Wholemeal bread tastes good and is worth buying, especially because it's filling, tasty and packed with nutrients. This dish works best with day-old and even stale bread, and works with any type of bread, really, including plain white, rye, and even sourdough.

For 6 people

100 ml of whole milk160 ml of double cream2 tbsp of maple syrup, honey or unrefined sugar1 tsp of marc de coffee 100g dark chocolate2 eggs, lightly beaten25ml rum, brandy or whisky6 thick slices whole leaven1 tbsp butter

Pour the milk and half the cream into a small saucepan, stir in maple syrup, honey or unrefined sugar and coffee grounds, bring to a simmer, then remove from heat.

Chop 80 g of chocolate, put it in a bowl, pour the hot cream mixture over it and leave to stand for a few minutes. Stir gently until the chocolate melts and mixes with the cream, then stir in the beaten eggs and the rum, cognac or whiskey.

Arrange the slices of bread in a tray, pour the chocolate mixture all over the top and leave to soak for a few minutes; you can have more custard than you need, so save the rest for serving.

Melt a tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium heat, then sauté Gently cream the dipped bread in batches for three minutes on each side, or until they begin to form a crust.

Whip the remaining 80ml double cream, to thicken, and very gently warm the remaining chocolate cream. Serve one slice of French toast per serving with extra cream and chocolate custard on the side and some of the remaining 20g of chocolate shaved or grated on top.