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!

An Egg and Ham Pie?

A dish of bits left over in the fridge at the end of the week...

You all know the feeling - left over ingredients which need using but what to do with them? This happened to me (again) a couple of weeks ago when I was looking at some left over short crust pastry in the fridge and wondering if there was anything I could do with it. In the end I decided to try and make a "pie" (for want of a better word) with the last 2 eggs, a bit of cheddar and some sliced ham that was also in the fridge.

The pastry was thinly rolled out in order to line a stoneware bowl. To this was added some slices of ham and a bit of grated cheddar. 2 beaten eggs were then poured in before some more ham and grated cheddar were added. On top of this some mornay sauce was poured (Mornay is a béchamel with grated cheese added). Finally, a bit more grated cheese on top.

Simply put in the oven at 220C. I gave it 20 minutes but it probably could have done with a bit longer. It was only just cooked as it was still a bit liquid (though hot) in centre. I'd guess an extra 5-10 minutes (especially if you shouldn't be eating raw egg for any reason).

Given the left over nature of the ingredients I have decided to enter this for Frugal food Fridays being hosted this month by Caroline of Caroline Makes on behalf of Helen of Fuss Free Flavours.