Bread and Butter Pudding

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)

1. Preheat oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/375°F. Grease a 1.5 litre ovenproof dish, about 2.5 inch deep.
2. Butter the bread slices generously and cut each into 4 triangles.
3. Arrange a layer of the bread in the prepared dish.
4. Sprinkle the sultanas on top.
5. Then arrange the remaining bread slices on top of this.
6. Make the custard - mix the cream, milk, eggs, vanilla, and caster sugar in a bowl.
7. Strain the cream mixture over the bread slices and leave to soak for about 5 minutes.
8. 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.
9. Bake for 30 minutes until the top is golden and the custard is lightly set.
10. Remove the dish from the roasting tin and leave to cool for about 15 minutes.
11. Preheat grill to the highest setting.
12. 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.
13. [Optional] Brush the top with the warmed apricot jam. Serve with clotted cream or warm custard.