Bread and Butter Pudding

Here's a recipe that will use up your leftover bread but tastes delicious and will warm up the family on a cold winter's night.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sultanas
• 1/4 cup rum
• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 litre fresh cream
• 2 pinches cinnamon
• grated rind of 1 lemon
• grated rind of 1 orange
• 2 day old loaf of white bread or Italian fruit loaf (Panettone) - see note

Method

1. Soak the sultanas in rum for half an hour.
2. Remove the crust from the loaf of bread with a sharp knife.
3. Break up the bread into small pieces about 1cm (1/2") each ready for the pudding.
4. Make the custard by placing the eggs, caster sugar and cream into a bowl and whisk well.
5. Add the cinnamon, vanilla extract, citrus rind and the sultanas and combine.
6. Spread a layer of bread on the base of a large ovenproof pudding dish.
7. Pour some of the custard over the bread which will soak it up.
8. Add another layer of bread and some more custard, making sure to evenly distribute the sultanas. Repeat until the dish is full and fill to the very top with the remaining custard. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160°C until the pudding is golden, about 45-50 minutes. Serve immediately with icing sugar sprinkled on top, a dollop of cream and a sprig of mint.

Note: Two or three day old stale bread soaks up custard better than fresh bread because it's drier.

Copyright CTC Productions 2006