Bread And Butter Pudding, sheer indulgent comfort food

12 slices white bread (leave crusts on) from uncut loaf - sliced thickly and buttered and cut into triangles (4 per slice)
100g raisins, plumped in 3 tbsp brandy (booze is optional!)
4 large eggs, plus 1 large yolk
2.5 oz sugar
1 pt milk
1 pt double cream
1 tbsp vanilla extract
0.75 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
Quarter tsp salt

For topping
2 tbsp caster sugar
Quarter tsp grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to Gas mark 3

Mix the topping ingredients together and set aside.

Butter a large dish (something like a lasagne dish would be ideal) Lay one layer of buttered bread in the bottom and scatter the raisins over, then repeat. Finish the last layer with the 'points' of the quartered bread overlapping and sticking up.

In a bowl, whisk all the other ingredients and pour over the bread. Leave to stand for 10 minutes till it has seeped right down. Sprinklewith the topping and bake for about 45 minutes till golden and rising up the edges of the dish.

Don't let it 'set' too hard - so take it out when the centre wobbles a little when shaken and a knife in the middle comes out coated with half-set cream. It will continue to cook as it cools in a warm place for about 35 minutes. Then serve warm.

Cat,
I have one very similar with the exception of a 1/4 teasoon cinnamon added to the topping along with the nutmeg.

These are indeed a must try recipe!

mmmh bread & butter pudding is gorgeous!

Here's a variation on the bread and butter theme by one of the best English cooks around today, Delia Smith. Her recipes are fool-proof. When my daughter moved away from home, I gave her Delia's 3 books on 'how to'.... starting with how to boil water for boiled eggs....!


MARMALADE BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING - Delia Smith
Serves 4-6

2 rounded tablespoons dark chunky orange marmalade
6 slices white bread, from a good-quality large loaf, 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick with crusts left on
2 oz (50 g) softened butter
10 fl oz (275 ml) whole milk
2 1/2 fl oz (60 ml) double cream
3 large eggs
3 oz (75 g) sugar
grated zest 1 large orange
1 level tablespoon demerara sugar
1 oz (25 g) candied peel, finely chopped


To serve:
crème fraîche or chilled pouring cream

You will also need a baking dish, base 7 x 9 inches (18 x 23 cm) and 2 inches (5 cm) deep, lightly buttered.

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 350ºF (180ºC).

First, generously butter the slices of bread on one side, then spread the marmalade on 3 of these slices, and put the other 3 slices on top (buttered side down) so you've got 3 rounds of sandwiches. Now spread some butter over the top slice of each sandwich and cut each one into quarters to make little triangles or squares.

Then arrange the sandwiches, butter side up, overlapping each other in the baking dish and standing almost upright. After that, whisk the milk, cream, eggs and sugar together and pour this all over the bread. Scatter the surface of the bread with the grated orange zest, demerara sugar and candied peel, then place the pudding on a high shelf and bake it for 35-40 minutes until it's puffy and golden and the top crust is crunchy.

Serve the pudding straight from the oven while it's still puffy, with either crème fraîche or chilled pouring cream.

For the chocoholics amongst us...

Another Delia Smith bread and butter pudding recipe!

Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding - by Delia Smith

It's so simple but so good ? and even better prepared two days in advance. Serve in small portions because it is very rich. Though I doubt if there will be any left over, it's also wonderful cold.

Serves 6

9 slices, each 1/4 inch (5 mm) thick, good-quality white bread, 1 day old, taken from a large loaf
5 oz (150 g) dark chocolate (75 per cent cocoa solids)
3 oz (75 g) butter
15 fl oz (425 ml) whipping cream
4 tablespoons dark rum
4 oz (110 g) caster sugar
a good pinch cinnamon
3 large eggs


To serve:

double cream, well chilled

You will also need a shallow ovenproof dish 7 x 9 inches (18 x 23 cm) base x 2 inches (5 cm) deep, lightly buttered.

Begin by removing the crusts from the slices of bread, which should leave you with 9 pieces about 4 inches (10 cm) square. So now cut each slice into 4 triangles. Next, place the chocolate, whipping cream, rum, sugar, butter and cinnamon in a bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, being careful not to let the bowl touch the water, then wait until the butter and chocolate have melted and the sugar has completely dissolved. Next, remove the bowl from the heat and give it a really good stir to amalgamate all the ingredients.

Now in a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and then pour the chocolate mixture over them and whisk again very thoroughly to blend them together.

Then spoon about a 1/2 inch (1 cm) layer of the chocolate mixture into the base of the dish and arrange half the bread triangles over the chocolate in overlapping rows. Now, pour half the remaining chocolate mixture all over the bread as evenly as possible, then arrange the rest of the triangles over that, finishing off with a layer of chocolate. Use a fork to press the bread gently down so that it gets covered very evenly with the liquid as it cools.

Cover the dish with clingfilm and allow to stand at room temperature for 2 hours before transferring it to the fridge for a minimum of 24 (but preferably 48) hours before cooking. When you're ready to cook the pudding, pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C). Remove the clingfilm and bake in the oven on a high shelf for 30-35 minutes, by which time the top will be crunchy and the inside soft and squidgy. Leave it to stand for 10 minutes before serving with well-chilled double cream poured over.

Oh, Cat! M'wife will LUV you for posting these recipes.....And it will put me in good graces when I am being a little bad...

Do you have a recipe for a light whiskey sauce, by chance? Or did I miss one in another thread???? There are *so* many!!!
You tempress....

Cheers

Do you mean a sweet whisky sauce or a savoury one, Jason?

I would say a sweet one.Or one of each!

Jason - here's a couple of sauces - you can flavour them with whisky or rum or brandy....

3 oz butter
3 oz icing sugar
3 fluid oz of whisky
yolks of 2 large eggs (lightly whisked)

Put the butter and icing sugar in a heavy bottomed pan and gently heat (do NOT let the butter turn brown) until the they have melted together. Add the yolks and whisky and mix well. Heat very gently until the mixture thickens - do not allow to boil. Leave this mixture to cool and then whisk until it thickens. This is nice served cold with hot puds...

A simpler one is to take a quantity of thick double cream - add a tablespoon of icing sugar to help with the volume and then put in as much whisky as you like to taste!

If I'm cooking something like venison with a redcurrant sauce - I use whisky in the sauce, rather than make a cream and whisky sauce.... again, what I would do for a sauce for steaks is

Sear the steaks in a very hot pan. When they are cooked, remove from the heat and keep warm. Add 20 fluid oz cream to the meat juices in the pan - bring almost to the boil and then add a quantity of whisky and allow to reduce slightly...

Pour over the steaks.

BTW, the reason I am so specific about 20 fluid oz of cream is because that is one of the sizes the pots of cream are sold in by the supermarkets!

you mean them half litre ones? *grins* I love making my own custard and I always add a general big quantity of Cream, as well as I like it in dozens of other things...

you mean them half litre ones? *grins* I love making my own custard and I always add a general big quantity of Cream, as well as I like it in dozens of other things...

Ah but you can do so, AD - you are YOUNG - all that cholesterol catches up with people like me!

I tend to only use a little, and use it only occasionally!

Well, I ended up making this instead of the mincemeat/shortbread this weekend, for a family get together. As I was getting the ingr. for the mincemeat, m'wife saw this topic and asked to look at it. She was really wanting me to make this. So, I did. Turns out that m'Grandfather is a huge breadpudding fan! Everybody loved it!
I did add a few white choc. Chips to the middle layer, and instead of raisins, I used dried cranberries that had been soaked in cherry juice.( they call them craisins over here) It gave it a wee bit of festive color.


Also made the rum sauce. I used Mount Gay rum. The whole thing was a great hit!

My wife wanted me to tell you "thank you" for taking the time to share these with everyone.

Jason
Tell your wife I'm touched by her appreciation!

Glad the dish went down so well, and the rum sauce too.... Your variations on a theme of B&BP sound just great!

Cat

I absolutely love bread pudding. I am going to have to try to make some of these recipes.