Introduction: Easy Bread and Butter Pudding
This was once known as "Poor Man's Pudding" because it was inexpensive, easy to prepare and a great way of using up leftover or stale bread. It’s a traditional British classic and is usually served with custard, double cream or evaporated or condensed milk.
Step 1: You Will Need:
- A good size baking dish
- 100g of sugar, I used granulated sugar for this bake
- 1 t-sp of good quality cinnamon
- Butter, for buttering the bread and greasing the dish (or margarine)
- 3 good handfuls of sultanas
- 2 eggs, I always use free range
Variations:
- Replace the sultanas with dried cranberries or prunes or dried apricots - or even, use them all!
- Replace the cinnamon with nutmeg or vanilla extract or paste
- Add some cocoa to the milk mixture to make it chocolatey
- Replace the dried fruit with fresh fruit
- In fact, you can add whatever you fancy or have in the cupboard, as long as you keep the egg, milk, bread and butter / margarine.
I used white bread for this, but I see no reason why you cannot use wholemeal, brown, G/F etc
I have a cooking conversion chart here if you need assistance with oven temperatures and weight conversions
Step 2: Pre-heat Oven and Grease Dish
Pre-heat your oven to Gas #3 / 190 C
Grease your dish using some of the butter you'll use to butter the bread later
Step 3: Mix Cinnamon and Sugar
Dry mix the cinnamon and sugar together
If using vanilla paste, extract or a vanilla pod, add this to the milk instead.
Step 4: Butter Bread
Butter your five slices of bread.
You can choose to cut off the crusts, but I left mine on.
Cut your slices of bread in half.
Step 5: Layer the Bread
Layer your bread into the dish adding the sultanas and sugar mix to each slice as you go along.
It's OK if you have to do more than one layer of bread, sultanas and sugar.
Step 6: Mix Egg and Milk
Mix together the eggs and milk
Step 7: Pour Over Bread
Pour the egg and milk mixture over the bread and leave to soak for about 10 minutes.
Note: After 10 minutes, if it still looks like you've poured over too much milk mixture, don't worry, you haven't
Step 8: Bake and Enjoy
Bake in the centre of your pre-heated oven for 35 to 45 minutes.
I suggest you check after 35 minutes, if all the egg and milk mix has soaked in and cooked, it's good to go, if not, cook a little longer or to time.
Once cooled, serve as is or with custard, double cream, evaporated or condensed milk.
Also available on mybaking blog