Bread and Butter pudding

Bread and Butter Pudding

I have recently been doing some research into Comfort Foods for a column I wrote for BBC Good Food (shameless self-promotion there – but check out the blog at: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/blog/503-comfortfood/ 

Ready for the oven

Anyway my ‘research’ of quizzing various friends and family on their preferred comfort foods revealed bread (and all things carbs) to be very popular. I felt inspired to make some tasty delights out of dear bread, specifically a ‘taste off’ between bread and butter pudding, and its oft-forgotten cousin bread pudding. Very quickly the difference for those not in the know: bread and butter pudding is buttered bread with vanilla custard poured oven and cooked in the oven in a bain marie, bread pudding is stale bread, dried fruit and spices all mashed up together into a sticky mess which is then cooked off in the oven (one of my mother’s favourite comfort foods – though I admit I haven’t made it sound very appetising).

So yesterday the battle commenced with the making of the b&b pudding. I decided to go for brioche as the basis of my pud, I don’t particularly like brioche ordinarily but it is fabulous in this recipe. I spread each slice with butter and my homemade peach jam and then topped with freshly made vanilla custard. Good god it was yummy. Indeed I can confess lovely fiancé and I just had the leftovers for our breakfast.

So next I shall be making the bread pudding and concluding which pud wins in a battle of the comfort foods.

Bread and butter pudding, serves 4 (or indeed two for dinner and then the same two for breakfast!)

8 slices of brioche

Enough unsalted butter to spread over the brioche and greasing the dish

Peach or apricot jam, again enough to spread over the brioche

Tasty good

A handful of sultanas or other dried fruit

For the vanilla custard:

3 large egg yolks

1 vanilla pod

½ pint milk

1 tbsp caster sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C.

Put the milk in a pan, then scrap in the vanilla seeds and drop in the pod as well. Bring to the boil and then leave to cool for about 5 minutes. Whisk together the egg yolk and sugar then remove the pod from the milk and slowly whisk in the milk.

In a clean saucepan heat the custard and keep whisking, at a low heat (too hot and it will curdle) until you reach the desired consistency.

Butter your oven dish and then butter and jam the brioche slices, cut across the diagonal so that you have 16 triangles. Layer the brioche slices overlapping butter side up, then pour over the custard.

Put the dish in a larger roasting tin and fill half way up the sides with cold water. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes or until the custard is set and the pudding is golden.