The Ultimate Makeover Bread Butter Pudding Recipes

THE ULTIMATE MAKEOVER: BREAD & BUTTER PUDDING

Steps:

• Put the apricots and raisins in a small dish, pour over the brandy and leave to soak, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, beat the egg and sugar together in a medium bowl, then whisk in the custard powder with a balloon whisk until smooth. Warm the milk in a small non-stick saucepan; then, when it's just coming up to a boil, remove from the heat and slowly stir into the egg mixture. Scrape in the vanilla seeds, drop in the pared lemon zest and vanilla pod and set aside to cool and infuse for 30 mins.
• Whisk the crème fraîche into the cooled milk. Strain this custard through a sieve into a jug. Using ¼ tsp butter from the 25g, very lightly butter a shallow ovenproof dish, about 20 x 25 x 4.5cm.
• Butter the bread on one side only with the rest of the butter, then spread over the conserve or jam. Cut each slice into 4 triangles, then lay half the triangles, jam side up, in the dish. Scatter over half the apricots and raisins, then lay the rest of the bread over the top, again jam side up. Scatter over the rest of the dried fruit and any unsoaked brandy, then pour half the custard over the bread. Leave to soak for 15 mins. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
• Sit the dish in a roasting tin. Pour the rest of the custard over the bread, press the bread lightly into the custard then half fill the roasting tin with hot water. Bake for 20 mins, then raise the heat to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 and bake for a further 5-10 mins until the bread on top is crisp and golden. Remove and let the pudding sit for 2-3 mins. Sift over the icing sugar and serve warm.

ULTIMATE BREAD PUDDING

Steps:

• Note: bread can be any non-savory firm textured bread.
• Avoid soft supermarket bread- makes pudding mushy and avoid rustic crusty loaves with open crumb- doesn't absorb and yields too firm a pudding.
• Whole wheat cinnamon raisin works well, but a brioche or challah work the best.
• Preheat oven to 350, butter a 13x9 baking dish.
• Whisk milk and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.
• Meanwhile scrape vanilla bean into milk mixture and throw in pods.
• Heat to steaming, but not boiling.
• Discard vanilla pods.
• Whisk eggs and yolks in a large bowl, gradually add 2 cups of hot milk mixture, then pour egg mixture into the saucepan with the hot milk.
• Strain and whisk in cream.
• Spread bread cubes in prepared dish.
• Slowly pour custard over bread being sure to saturate all of the bread.
• Bake in the center of the oven for about 1 hour or until a small knife inserted in the center of the pudding comes out clean.
• Serve warm or chilled with whipped cream or caramel sauce.
• Note: you can add raisins, currents, dried cranberries, sour cherries or any other dried fruit you like.

BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9-inch round pie dish or cake pan.
• Butter the bread on both sides and cut into triangles. Arrange a single layer of buttered bread in the bottom of the greased pan, slightly overlapping the triangles. Sprinkle with 1/2 of the sugar and all of the currants. Arrange the remaining bread on top, then sprinkle with remaining sugar.
• Beat milk, eggs, and nutmeg together. Pour over the bread and press down firmly to compress the pudding and help the bread absorb the milk mixture.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown and set, about 30 minutes.