I've lost count of the number of times I've vowed that my eldest (nearly 4) will eat less chocolate and yet he's so completely in it's thrall that I can get him to do pretty much anything for a chocolate croissant. I'm sure there are mothers out there who are stronger willed than I am but try as I might the mix of a biddable child and the sheer pleasure it gives him is just hard for me to resist. He's a fussy eater so to see him tucking into something new is wonderful, even if that new thing is chocolate brioche.
In many ways the french have parenting sorted. Their baby food aisle isn't that big and the food unappealing to anyone over 18 months. If you have ever had pleasure from eating you are going to move on from the green sludgy puree as soon as you can waft past the cheese section (usually about three times bigger than the kids pouch aisle). They also do mini chocolate brioche's in pocket size individually wrapped so I can have bribery to hand wherever I go.
I packed as many of these as I could in my suitcase when we returned, only to discover a week later that their use by date had been the day the we got back. What to do? As an Englishwoman on the brink of Autumn I am filled with thriftiness. No food can be thrown out of my house at the moment. Yet, even I was going to draw the line at watching the little chap stuff in 5 mini chocolate brioche's in one sitting so I thought I'd create some sort of bread and butter pudding that he and his brother could have.
