One of my favourite English desserts is this delicious bread and butter pudding, sweetened with vanilla sugar and generously seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg. It is not difficult to make, and chances are you will have the ingredients around the kitchen at any given time. It is a great way to use up that sliced loaf in the bread bin, or to make it even easier, buy a small fruit loaf from the bakers for the perfect pud! A good sprinkle of vanilla sugar over the top of the dish will give it a wonderfully crispy crust, beneath which sits melt-in-the-mouth goodness. It is delicious eaten alone, but a lashing of fresh cream will do it no harm at all.
01.
Ingredients
6 slices white bread or fruit loaf, crusts removed
25g butter
50g sultanas (if you are not using fruit loaf, if so these are optional)
250ml milk
2 eggs
50ml double cream
2tbs vanilla sugar
ground cinnamon
ground nutmeg
02.
Method
- Grease a 1 litre pie dish generously with butter, and butter the bread.
- Meanwhile beat together the eggs with a quarter of the sugar till pale, and on the hob heat the milk and cream till scalding (do not let it boil).
- Now layer the bread in the dish, giving each layer a sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon.
- Mix the milk and cream with the egg and sugar to make the custard then pour this over the dish and let it stand for 20 minutes, adding a final generous dusting of vanilla sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Heat the oven to 180degrees, and bake the pudding for 30-40 minutes, by which time the custard will have set and the pudding will rise beautifully.
- It is best to time taking the pudding out of the oven just before serving, as it will sink back into the dish if you leave it to cool.
