Bread and butter pudding recipe

As well as being delicious, bread and butter pudding is an ideal way to use up the rest of a loaf of bread before it goes stale. 

If you live alone, you may often find that you can't get through a whole loaf while it is still fresh enough for sandwiches. Rather than waste it, why not enjoy this warming nursery dessert, with a touch of grown up sophistication.

This is a REALLY SIMPLE dessert recipe, and the only way you can spoil it is to cook it for too long. Placing your pan inside a larger pan of water, will help to prevent overcooking.

The quantities below serve 2, but you may like to double it and serve the remainder, cold, the next day.

Ingredients

Serves 2

How to make your bread and butter pudding

1. Start by greasing your baking pan with some of the butter. I like to slightly warm the butter in the microwave and then use a pastry brush to do this.
2. Take your slices of bread, stack them in a pile, and cut off the crusts. (If you don't mind the crusts you can omit this step.)
3. Spread the remaining butter onto your bread slices.
4. I like to cut the slices in half diagonally, as it gives a pretty effect to the finished pudding, but this isn't essential.
5. Lay the slices, butter side up, in your baking pan. Sprinkle your dried fruit on top. 
6. In a small saucepan, pour the milk and cream. Then add the sugar and heat gently. You want the sugar to dissolve without the milk coming to the boiling point. 
7. In a bowl, whisk the eggs, sherry and vanilla flavoring together. Then pour in the mixture from your saucepan while stirring.
8. Pour the liquid over the bread in the pan, and leave to sit for about one hour, to give the bread time to soften.
9. If you are using a whole nutmeg, grind it over the bread and butter pudding using a nutmeg grater. Alternatively sprinkle your bottled ground nutmeg over the pudding.
10. 15 minutes before you are ready to start cooking you pudding turn the oven on to 180C (350F or gas mark 4) to preheat.
11. Add a little warm water to a roasting pan and stand the pan that contains your pudding inside it, then place in the oven. 
12. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the liquid has set and the top is golden brown and crispy.

Variations and substitutions

You might like to add flaked almonds to the top of your dessert to give added crunch. 

Sprinkling with a little demarara sugar before cooking will add a lovely caramelized topping.

This dessert can be adjusted for those of us with food allergies or intolerances.  When cooking it for myself, I have to use gluten free bread and a milk substitute such as rice or almond milk. I also have to replace the sugar with a sweetener such as stevia. It still tastes just as good though!