One of my favourite comfort food is Bread and Butter Pudding. It has that ability to be classified as both a dessert or a snack depending on how you serve or how much you eat.
A lot of bread puddings I have the experience of buying in shops are too stodgy. They resemble more like slightly sweetened thick chewy bread. But not this one. I do love this recipe because is lighter and the ratio of the egg to milk/cream is just right. Plus the sugar is just right - not too sweet. I got this from an old ripped-off page of the BBC Good Food magazine with the recipe coming from the chef Paul Heathcote. Thanks Paul.
I know I burned some of the pudding top but believe me it's not that badly burnt. It's probably just the lighting angle of the picture. Not a problem for me because I'm partial to slightly charred food!
Bread and Butter Pudding
6-7 slices of white bread - crusts removed
65 g [1/4 cup] butter - softened
100 g sultanas or raisins
250 ml [1 cup] full-cream milk
250 ml [1 cup] double cream (heavy cream)
3 medium eggs (or 2 large eggs)
50 g [1/4 cup] caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
25 g icing sugar
25 g apricot jam - warmed and sieved (optional)
- Preheat oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/375°F. Grease a 1.5 litre ovenproof dish, about 2.5 inch deep.
- Butter the bread slices generously and cut each into 4 triangles.
- Arrange a layer of the bread in the prepared dish.
- Sprinkle the sultanas on top.
- Then arrange the remaining bread slices on top of this.
- Make the custard - mix the cream, milk, eggs, vanilla, and caster sugar in a bowl.
- Strain the cream mixture over the bread slices and leave to soak for about 5 minutes.
- Put the dish in a larger roasting tin in the oven. While the oven rack (with roasting tin) is about a third out of the oven, carefully pour hot water in the roasting tin to come halfway up the side of the dish.
- Bake for 30 minutes until the top is golden and the custard is lightly set.
- Remove the dish from the roasting tin and leave to cool for about 15 minutes.
- Preheat grill to the highest setting.
- Generously dust the top of the pudding with sifted icing sugar and glaze under the grill until golden brown. If it starts to puff up remove and leave to cool a little longer before returning to the grill.
Note: It will be more efficient if you use a cooking torch to glaze the icing sugar. - [Optional] Brush the top with the warmed apricot jam. Serve with clotted cream or warm custard.