Chocolate Bread Pudding

This is my attempt to duplicate the chocolate bread pudding served at Henrietta's Table, which is one of my favorite restaurant desserts of all time. Henrietta's serves it with vanilla ice cream and carmelized bananas in butter caramel sauce -- I generally stick with straight ice cream.

• 4 pounds decent french bread, inch cubes (traditionally stale, but fresh seems to work fine)
• 3 quarts milk
• 1 quart cream
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups unsweetened cocoa (dutch processed -- Hershey's isn't as dark, so probably substitute 2.5-3 cups Hershey's)
• 14 eggs
• 2 ounces vanilla
• 3 cups sugar
• 1.5 pounds small very dark chocolate chunks

1. Cut up bread and put in 8 quart container (or larger).
2. Heat milk in pot over low-medium heat with 2 cups sugar and cocoa, stirring until smooth. (Bottom of pot burns easily, so be careful.)
3. Add cream to milk mixture, and pour mixture over bread. Let bread soak one hour.
4. Preheat oven to 325F and liberally butter 2 10x15x2 glass pans. (shallow dining hall half-hotel pans are probably fine.)
5. Beat eggs with vanilla and 3 cups sugar, not very long.
6. Stir egg mixture into bread-milk mixture.
7. Ladle into pans, strewing with chocolate chunks (try not to get too much chocolate on the bottom of the pans, where it can burn).
8. Bake one hour and 10 minutes.
9. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream. (1.5-2 gallons work well for a study break)