Bread and butter pudding

I am on a posting roll! Let's just say my family may be getting a teeny bit tired of me directing them to sit still/hold this/stand there so I can take a photo for my blog...or waiting to eat so I can take a photo of food! Oh well, I am having fun and, as they say, if Mum is happy everyone is happy!

Well, last night, as I was getting dinner ready, I got out our day old baguette (aka rock baguette) and decided to try an old remedy for 'refreshing' stale bread as told to me by my dear mother. Apparently her mother used to brush the bread with milk, pop it back into the oven and it would be good as new. Something must have got lost in translation because it didn't work! The baguette had a nice shiny glaze though....

Anyway, I decided to abandon all hope of having baguette slices to dip into our yummy beef and lentil stew and made a bread and butter pudding instead. This is one of the easiest puddings you will ever make and is one of my favourites.

You just get out any old dish that you think will fit most of your bread, add butter and jam to one side of the bread and place face up in the dish. Then sprinkle some sultanas/raisins or any other dried fruit over the bread. I only had these giant raisins that I get here.

Then make up a simple custard mixture (I think mine ended up being about 3 cups of milk, 4 eggs and a heaping 1/4 cup scoop of caster sugar) by whisking the milk, eggs and sugar together until blended well. Pour half over the bottom layer of bread and let sit to soak in for about 10 minutes (crunchy old baguette took quite a while to soak but other bread doesn't take nearly as long).

Then add butter and jam to the next layer of bread and place in the dish face down. Pour the rest of the custard mixture over the top, sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg and let sit for awhile to soak again. Every recipe I have seen for this directs you to place this dish in a water bath but I never do and it turns out fine. Cook in a moderately slow oven (160 degrees celsius) for about 45 mins.

Here is the yummy looking toasty golden end product.

Sometimes the top will puff up quite alarmingly at the end of the cooking time but this falls back down as it cools. Then you can just scoop out the delicious bready custardy goodness and enjoy! Nice with vanilla icecream too. You can use any bread for this. Sliced, bread rolls, fruit bread, croissants, brioche etc. You get the idea.