Bread and Butter Pudding – an Endlessly Variable Old-Fashioned Dessert

I’ve never used a recipe to make bread and butter pudding, but I’ve had requests for one, so here it is. Just remember to make enough for breakfast!

My breakfast!

Last week I posted a picture of my breakfast of left-over bread and butter pudding on my Instagram profile and Facebook page (feel free to follow me on both – the links are to the right). I love bread and butter pudding. It’s sweet, comforting, avoids food waste by using up stale bread and doesn’t require a trip to the shop or a culinary qualification to put together. Add all that to the fact that it’s brilliant reheated and eaten for breakfast, and I think you’ve got a perfect dish.

Growing up in my grandmother’s house dessert was rarely on the menu, but when it was, it was this or similar simple, inexpensive sweet dishes. Rice and milk (yep, that’s all it was – yesterdays cooked rice with warm milk and sugar or jam) used to feature, pancakes with sugar and lemon, or packet self-saucing puddings were about as sophisticated as it got.

My siblings and I were a wee bit envious of our cousins, some of whose mother’s were CWA members with the commensurate superb baking skills – Auntie Pat’s pasty slice and Auntie Molly’s cream puffs were legendary in our family. But neither my mum or Nana were great cooks and money was tight – that’s just how it was.

However, Nana could turn out a decent bread and butter pudding and so can I – using good quality free-range eggs (I get mine from The Natural Egg Co at Mount Pleasant when my girls are off the lay) and sourdough bread gives the best result.

After posting the picture last week, I was asked by several followers for the recipe. This is one of those dishes that generally just gets thrown together with very little thought and no instructions, but I’ve put the basics together in a recipe for anyone who wants guidance.

And it has endless variations. You can tart it up in many ways – use croissants, fruit loaf  or sour dough instead of ordinary bread, add jam or marmalade when buttering, toss in choc chips instead of sultanas, use cream in the  custard to make it richer, or add some lemon or orange zest for an extra zing. 

The only hard and fast rule is to ALWAYS make enough for leftovers for breakfast!

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Bread and Butter Pudding

An endlessly variable pudding - use croissants or fruit loaf instead of ordinary bread, add jam or marmalade when buttering, toss in choc chips instead of sultanas, add cream to the custard to make it richer, or add some lemon or orange zest for an extra zing.

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time45 mins

Total Time50 mins

Course: Dessert

Servings: 4 serves

Author: Amanda McInerney of www.lambsearsandhoney.com

Ingredients

• 4-6 slices of buttered bread
• 1/3 cup sultanas or currants
• 2-3 large eggs
• 500 mls full cream milk
• 2 Tbsp caster sugar

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Butter a medium sized oven proof dish.
• Cut bread into pieces and layer it in the dish, sprinkling sultanas or currants over each layer.
• In a jug, beat eggs lightly with a fork, add milk and sugar and continue beating to mix well.
• Pour over the bread and fruit, pressing the bread into the custard mix with the back of a fork.
• Leave it to stand for 10 minutes to allow the bread to absorb the moisture.
• Sprinkle with a little more fruit, then bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the top is golden and crispy, with brown edges on the bread, and the pudding has puffed up.
• Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving with cream or ice cream.
• Or both.