Bread and Butter Pudding
By Rachel Davies
The jury’s often out over bread and butter pudding.
Do you have bad memories of struggling to eat dried-out white eggy bread dotted with sultanas in the school dining room, or does it translate to warm comfort food from your childhood?
Good bread and butter pudding is heavenly nostalgia. It is also straightforward to make, with minimal weighing, measuring or in-depth technical knowledge necessary.
As the Great British Bake Off raises the stakes of home baking, it’s sometimes nice to remember that simplicity is ok, and buying a few good ingredients and turning them into something wonderful works just as well.
I make my bread and butter pudding with panettone, the Italian sweet Christmas bread that I’ve been in love with ever since my dad brought one home every year just before Christmas – a gift from the Italian restaurant underneath his office.
You can also use leftover croissants, pain au chocolat or brioche for a decadent take on this classic. Make it you own sprinkled with chopped chocolate, candied peel, finely chopped dried apricots or sultanas soaked in rum.
Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
750g Panettone
600ml double cream
7 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
200g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Demerara sugar
Method
Preheat the oven to 150C. Cut the panettone into 2cm thick slices and place in overlapping layers into a baking dish.
Bring the cream almost to the boil over a medium heat. In the meantime whisk the eggs, yolk and sugar together.
Pour the hot cream slowly into the eggs, whisking constantly to stop the eggs from scrambling.
Add the vanilla, sieve the custard into a jug, and pour into the baking dish, covering all of the panettone. Baste any parts of the panettone that are dry, and leave to soak for 10 minutes. Then sprinkle the Demerara sugar over the top for a crispy topping.
Cover with foil and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the custard has set and the pudding is golden. Serve warm.
This keeps in the fridge for a few days. To reheat cover with foil.
