An Indulgent Bread and Butter Pudding

It's been a slow start to 2014 in many ways. Not a lot of walking, though to be fair, given the weather of the last few months it would have been more squelching than walking. Did a walk in January and that's been it so far this year. Thought I had blogged it but apparently not. Ooops... Guess I'll have to post it next.

Not much serious cooking either for one reason or another. At least nothing I've wanted to blog about... Still, feeling like I might be getting a bit of mojo back there. Thank you someone for the prod!

So bread and butter pudding. Classic British pudding. On the one hand it can be a great way to make something from some bread that's gone past it's best. On the other hand it can be made much more indulgent with a bit if planning.

These ingredients are for 1 pint (600ml) dish.

Brioche Fingers - 6
Orange marmalade
Raisins / Sultanas
Milk - 175mls
Double cream - 50mls
Eggs - 2
Caster Sugar - 12g
All Spice
Butter


Slice the brioche fingers in 2 and put a thin layer of marmalade on each one.
Grease the dish with butter and layer the brioche into the dish scattering some of the raisins / sultanas in as you go. Add a generous pinch of all spice (or nutmeg if you prefer) over the top.

Next make the custard. beat 2 eggs with the sugar in a bowl. Then add the milk and cream to a pan and heat the mix so it scalds (don't burn it). Add this mix to the egg /sugar mix slowly mixing as you go. This custard can then be poured over the bread. Preferably give it time to soak into the brioche (I left it for a couple of hours), otherwise just scatter a bit more caster sugar over the top now.

Put into an oven at 180C for about 35 mins (take out when nice and golden on top).

Serve hot. I poured over some more double creme (with a little vanilla extract) but ice cream or more custard would work well too.


Sorry there aren't any photos. Trust me though - it was delicious!

A Croque-Madame…

Croque-Madame

...my take on a French classic. The croque-madame is one of many variants of the traditional croque-monsieur, a grilled ham and cheese sandwich (typically with a béchamel on top). 

Now, my version isn’t exactly grilled...or a sandwich...I suppose if I was going to get cheffy about it I would call it a deconstructed croque-madame as I have taken the elements and put them together my way. Whatever you want to call it, it is also the most decadent and indulgent breakfast going!

The first thing to do it get a béchamel going. For this dish I keep it really simple. Large knob of butter and a tablespoon of flour to make a roux and while stirring slowly add milk until you get a thick but pourable sauce. Pinch of black pepper and the sauce is done. Keep it on a very low heat to keep it warm and give it an occasional stir while making the rest of the dish. Do keep an eye on the sauce though as you may well need to add a dash more milk at some point to save it thickening up too much (which is what happened to me with this one).

Next up is the toast. Take a couple of slices of thick white bread (possibly the only time I will recommend using a sliced white), cut the crusts off and butter it liberally on both sides. Get a hot frying pan and fry off the bread on both slides. It needs to be hot to get the bread nice and crispy. Remember “croque” comes from “croquer” - “to crunch” so it needs to be crispy!

Put the toast on a oven proof plate, put some sliced ham on top of the toast along with a little bit of grated cheese and then put this in the oven at 100C to keep it hot and start melting the cheese.

Back to the frying pan. Add a little vegetable oil and then fry a couple of eggs. If you like your yolks runny (and, frankly, is there any other way) fry them until they are just cooked.

Quickly get the plate out of the oven (turn the oven up to 200C at this point) and put the eggs on top of the cheese and ham. Then pour the béchamel over the top and put back in the oven for 5 minutes.

Out of the oven and serve. Pure indulgence on a breakfast plate.