Caramilised Bread and Butter Pudding with Sultanas and Apricot Glaze
by Rick Stein
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.
Method
Based on 6 servings, adjust as needed.
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C. 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.
Step 2
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.
Step 3
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.
Step 4
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.
- Ingredients
- Based on 6 servings
-
100g Sultanas, or candied mix peel, or a mixture 1x Sainsbury's Sultanas 500g -
250ml Whole Milk 1x Sainsbury's British Whole Milk 568ml (1 pint) -
25g Apricot Jam, warmed and sieved 1x Sainsbury's Apricot Jam 454g -
250ml Double Cream 1x Sainsbury's Double Cream 300ml -
50g Butter, plus extra for greasing 1x Sainsbury's British Butter, Salted 250g -
50g Caster Sugar 1x Sainsbury's White Caster Sugar 500g -
1 Vanilla Pod, split and seeds scraped 1x Nielsen-Massey Gourmet Two Vanilla Pods -
200g Clotted Cream, (optional) 1x Sainsbury's Cornish Clotted Cream, Taste the Difference 200g -
3 Eggs 1x Sainsbury's British Free Range Eggs Medium x6 -
7 slices White Bread, crusts removed 1x Hovis Soft Medium Sliced White Bread 800g -
25g Icing Sugar 1x Sainsbury's Icing Sugar 500g