Bread and Butter Pudding…

Bread and Butter pudding is a real winter warmer, plus it’s a great way to use up bread that’s not as fresh as it could be. Hubby loves it when I make bread and butter pudding, though I’ve got to admit, the kids aren’t as keen as they don’t like dried fruit.

We make our own bread and it doesn’t last as long as the shop bought so we often have some left over. Bread and butter pudding is a great way to use it up.

Anyway, use your imagination when using up stale bread products, I’ve used teacakes, before now and they made a delicious pud. I can’t see why any bread product wouldn’t work making this pud.

In the above picture, I used 4 bread buns though 3 would have been ample.

The below recipe should be enough for at least 4 people.

Ingredients:-
4 slices of bread (Or whatever you have to hand).
2 eggs
1/2 to 3/4 pint of milk (You could water the milk down a tad if needed).
A knob of butter
About 4-6 ounces of mixed fruit (Single fruit such as raisins can be used).
Sugar (or sweetener) to taste
Mixed spices (or just use nutmeg or cinnamon) I use whatever I have available in the cupboard.

Method
Grab an oven dish and add the following.
Your bread, some folks like to slice it, but I prefer mine in smaller chunks.
Add your eggs to the milk and beat together, pour onto the bread and leave to absorb for about 10-15 minutes.

Check the consistency, if its really dry, then you’ll need to add more milk. It needs to be quite milky otherwise you’ll end up with a pudding that’s dry and claggy. (Tip) press your spoon on the top of the pud and see if you get any excess milk. To be honest I’d sooner have a tad too much than not enough.

Add your fruit, sugar and spice, leave for another 5 mins. Add your butter to the top.

Back in the day, you’d have put this in the oven for about 3 hours on a very low heat so it would cook slowly, but I cheat and start it off in the microwave on a low power for about 10-15 mins or until I can see it’s started to cook. It’s up to you whichever method you prefer. (Microwave start is cheaper).

Put in a preheated oven on low for an hour. Check it after half an hour to see how it’s doing. Make sure your oven isn’t too hot or it will go dry.

Once it’s golden brown and not soggy in the middle, it will be ready.

Serve on it’s own, with cream or custard. It’s lovely and filling and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you didn’t waste your leftover bread etc.

NB
I’ve never tried to completely cook this in the microwave but I can’t really see why it wouldn’t work, except that you wouldn’t get that lovely golden brown look. Eventually I’m also going to have a go at making it in my halogen oven and see how it turns out.