Nostalgic, comforting and one you can just put in the oven, this dessert from Rick Stein’s new cookbook is such a treat.
For me, bread and butter is a favourite nursery pudding. It was originally intended to use up stale bread and with that thought in mind, I think that simple white bread is the right choice for this recipe. Some people choose brioche or some other enriched dough, but I prefer the simple plainness of the bread with the creamy vanilla voluptuousness of the custard. I like to add some sultanas or candied peel or both to my bread and butter pudding and finish it with an apricot glaze, having first caramelised the top with icing sugar under the grill.
- Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan 170C. Butter a 1.5-litre shallow ovenproof dish — something about 6cm deep is ideal. Generously spread the slices of bread with butter and cut each slice into 4 triangles. Arrange a layer of the bread over the base of the dish, then sprinkle in the sultanas and/or candied peel. Arrange the remaining bread triangles on top.
- Mix the cream, milk, eggs and sugar together and pass the mixture through a sieve. Slit open the vanilla pod, scrape out the seeds and whisk them into the custard. Pour the custard over the bread and leave to soak for 5 minutes.
- Place the dish in a roasting tin and pour enough hot water into the tin to come halfway up the sides of the dish. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, until the top is golden and the custard has lightly set but is still quite soft in the centre. Remove the dish from the roasting tin and leave to cool for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the grill to its highest setting.
- Generously dust the top of the pudding with icing sugar and place under the grill to glaze — watch it carefully, though, as it burns easily. If the top starts to puff up, remove the dish from the grill and let it cool a little longer before returning to the heat. Brush the top with the sieved apricot jam and serve with some clotted cream, if you wish.
Rick Stein’s Food Stories by Rick Stein, $65, published by BBC Books.
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