Bread & Butter Pudding by Adam Handling

Serves

6

Prep Time

20 mins

Cooking Time

40 mins

Ingredients

For the custard

• 400ml whole milk (N.B. can also use semi-skimmed milk)
• 300ml double cream
• 150g caster sugar
• 8 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For the pudding

• 250g unsalted butter
• Old pastries / slices of bread (in the video: 2 croissants, 2 pains au chocolat, 7 slices of bread – white and brown)
• Leftover jams, for example black cherry, strawberries, bramble
• 1 lemon, for zesting

Method

To make the custard

• Pour the dairy into a saucepan on a medium heat.
• Add the sugar to the egg yolks and mix with a whisk.
• Add the vanilla essence to the yolk mixture and whisk until the colour becomes slightly lighter.
• Pour half the dairy into the yolk mixture and reduce the heat for the remaining liquid.
• Pour the yolk mixture into the pan. Cook slowly on a low heat for approximately 2 minutes.
• Keep an eye on the mixture and ensure it doesn’t turn into scrambled eggs.
• Pass through a chinois to ensure any shells, curd or lumps are separated from the custard.
• Leave to cool down.

To make the pudding

• Butter a tin (or any dish you want to cook your pudding in), to avoid the dessert sticking to the edges.
• Butter both sides of the bread and any pastry and create layers.
• Add the jams to every layer.
• Fill your tin until the edge, then pour the custard over and leave it to soak in to the bread/pastry.
• Press the bread/pastry and ensure everything is completely covered in custard.
• Leave to rest for 5 minutes, then add more custard if needed.
• Grate some lemon zest on top of the pudding and sprinkle some caster sugar on top before cooking in the oven at 130°C for approximately 40 minutes.
• Cover it in sugar again and caramelise the top with a blowtorch, to give a creme bruleè effect when cutting the pudding.
• Leave to cool down for 5 minutes, then cut into portions and serve.