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.

Full Steam Ahead

Steamed food has always appealed to me. Why wouldn't it? Steaming brings out the best flavour and locks in nutrients of most ingredients more than any other cooking method. Though this does not mean that I'm willing to do it often. All the hassle of dragging out all the cooking utensils from cupboards for steaming is something I could do without. And not only that, as a consequence of this I will expectedly have a mountain of pots, pans, steamer basket, etc. I have to wash up. I'm not a happy bunny after all that palaver.

But the kitchen gods must be smiling on me when Matt of Miele was kind enough to give me a more relaxing way of steaming by way of lending me a steam oven for a trial period. Now it's my new best friend. I just love the ease of cooking in it whereas, like what I said before, I used to dread the prospect of steaming. With the Miele steam oven all I have to do is fill up the water jug on its side, set the temperature and timer and away it goes. No fiddling with water laden pots, nor making the lid as tight fitting as possible, or worrying about running out of water (it warns you if water is running low). Once set-up, I shut the door and wait for it to chime indicating end of cooking time. I was quite surprised with the speed it reaches the usual cooking temperature of 100°C or the time it takes to cook things. It's almost like a microwave. I even defrosted frozen chicken in it with very good results. My kids love reheating food frequently using it in favour of our microwave oven.

My first foray in it of course is by way of dessert - steamed puddings of course. All the steamed puddings I have in my arsenal of recipes in this blog I tested in this steam oven. They all came out perfectly. The steamed treacle pudding that I've been wanting to do since time immemorial was the first one I cooked in it. Flavours from Delia Smith's recipe that I adapted were really really addictive that I have to steam one for the second time! It's best eaten with generous lashing of warm custard. I promise you it tastes so much better than how it looks in my picture below. Fantastically great comfort pudding on a winter's night. Do try it - both the steam oven and the treacle pudding.

Steamed Treacle Pudding

3 Tbsp golden syrup
175 g  self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
165 g  [2/3 cup] butter - softened
175 g  soft light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 Tbsp black treacle
3 Tbsp warmed golden syrup (optional) - extra for topping
greaseproof baking paper
aluminium foil

1. Butter well a 1.2 liter (2 pints) pudding basin. Pour the golden syrup in the bottom of the basin. Set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix the flour and baking powder.
3. Add all the other ingredients and beat with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes or until smooth and well combined.
4. Pour into the pudding basin. Smooth and level the top with the back of a spoon.
5. Measure the baking paper and foil into a size of about 16-inch x 12-inch. Put the foil on top of the baking paper. Fold and make a pleat in the centre.
6. Place this on top of the pudding basin with the foil side up. Pull it down the side of the basin and tie with a string or rubber band. Trim the excess baking paper and foil all around.
7. Steam for 2 hours.
8. Using a butter knife, loosen the pudding all around the side. Invert into a warmed plate. Pour the extra golden syrup on top (if using). Serve with custard or creme fraiche.

The Proof Is In The Pudding

Some of the traditional British cakes are puddings - steamed or boiled and served warm with an accompanying sauce. I came across a recipe for the Chocolate Pudding in the BBC Good Food magazine that I thought is easy enough to follow. Shirley Boot from North Devon was a reader of the said magazine who was kind enough to contribute her delicious recipe. I did not change most of the measurements for the pudding but added another tablespoon of golden syrup in the sauce. The latter came out still too chocolatey for me maybe next time I will reduce the baking chocs in it. Muscovado sugar is equivalent to crumbled 'panucha' from the Phils. Much more delicious to use than your standard white sugar. They have a lot of these in the Phil. sugar producing province of Negros in the Visayas region. I just hope they are more common in the markets of Metro Manila area.

My daughter J2 loved the pudding so much and I couldn't blame her. The balance of the sweetness and the other ingredients was perfect. It was probably the only cake that I made that she really liked. So there will certainly be more of these later.

Heavenly Chocolate Pudding

100 g  butter
2 Tbsp golden syrup
100 g  dark muscovado sugar
150 ml milk
1 egg
1 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
225 g  self-raising flour minus 1 1/2 Tbsp
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

*For the chocolate sauce:
4 Tbsp milk
4 Tbsp cream
2 Tbsp golden syrup
100 g  good-quality dark chocolate

1. Butter the inside of a 1.2 litre heatproof pudding bowl (pyrex is okay) and line the base with a disc of buttered greaseproof paper.
2. Mix the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl.
3. Melt the butter, syrup and sugar in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and stir in the milk and egg. Add the flour mixture to the pan, mix well.
4. Pour the mixture into the pudding bowl, cover tightly with aluminium foil and steam for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
5. Just before the end of the cooking time, heat all the chocolate sauce in a thick bottomed saucepan until melted, stirring all the time.
6. Turn the pudding out and discard the paper disc. Pour the sauce over the top and serve immediately.

Happy New Year everyone !!