Pumpkin and dark chocolate bread pudding

I don’t normally attempt to A) make sure I write recipes down or B) share them with the world, but what the heck. I love making bread pudding and I thought I would share this pumpkin-laden dish in the spirit of the pumpkin-laden upcoming holidays. We’ve been getting our vitamin A in the last week and a half with this and a large batch of pumpkin soup inspired by Knitxcore’s pumpkin soup post. So here is my recipe for Pumpkin and Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding:

Ingredients:
About 4 cups of bread cut into 1 inch cubes to fill a 9×9 baking pan. We used homemade whole grain wheat bread.
4 oz Neufchâtel cream cheese
1 cup pumpkin pie mix
1 cup half and half
3/8 cup agave
4 eggs
4 oz Ghirardelli 60% Cacao baking chocolate

Put cubed bread into 9×9 baking pan. Break chocolate bar into small chunks (or use chocolate chips) and sprinkle evenly over the bread cubes. Soften cream cheese and put it and all remaining ingredients into blender (or use hand mixer) and blend until completely mixed and smooth. Pour over bread and chocolate mix. Store in refrigerator overnight to allow bread pieces to soak up mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Eat heartily.

We ate this with a scoop of Fage Greek yogurt to cut the sweetness. It was satisfactory. Enjoy!