Bread ‘n’ Butter Pudding
This dish was the epitome of waste not, want not, using up bread that was past it’s best. But today’s Bread and Butter Pudding has come on leaps and bounds since then. it is one in the repertoire of great English Puddings which we should all enjoy even if only on special occasions. It’s also a cousin to similar dishes in the Middle East and India so it ha a world pedigree. It is very simple to make as vegan version and my taste buds tell me it doesn’t lose anything taste wise.
One of the changes that is a real winner is to use a fruit bread not plain white bread, the traditional ingredient. To my mind this just complements the dried fruit and spices that go into the dish anyway. So look out for vegan panettone at Christmas, vegan tea breads that contain fruit, and for an Easter treat, why not use vegan Hot Cross buns, a UK fav?
The dish we use for the recipe below takes 1 litre of liquid. Our dish is though piled high so the top edge of the bread becomes slightly crunchy but it also works well using a larger dish. Just make sure you have 2 layers of the bread.
Ingredients
Serves 4 – 6 (depending on how hungry your crowd is.)
Special equipment — an oven proof dish with a depth of 5 — 6cms; length 23cms; width 19cms
For the custard
700ml vegan milk
4tbs cornflour
seeds of 1 vanilla pod
5tbs caster sugar
To finish
Marmalade
For the bread element
1 day old, small sourdough loaf with sour cherries and walnuts, or a similar fruity loaf, cut into 9 slices
100g vegan butter
1tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp lemon paste or the zest of 1 lemon or orange
200g overnight soaked mixed fruit, (for soaking use black tea, lemon or orange juice or madeira)
Method
First prepare the bread. Mix the butter cinnamon and ginger.
Spread the slices of bread with the spicy butter and cut in half diagonally.
Put a layer of the bread, butter side up, in the bottom of a 1 litre dish. Sprinkle this layer with half of the fruit.
Place the second layer, the remaining bread, upright and push the remaining fruit between the slices. If you are using a bigger dish then one litre and there is the space, feel free to lay the bread flat, butter side up and then sprinkle on the fruit. Put to one side.
Heat the oven to 190C/170Cfan/375F.
To make the custard, heat the milk and the vanilla in a saucepan. Put the cornflour and sugar in a bowl and once the milk is warm, add enough to the bowl of cornflour and sugar to make it easy to whisk all the ingredients together.
Tip this mix back into the saucepan and continue whisking with the heat on, until the mix thickens and comes to the boil. Simmer gently for 1 minute.
With a large spoon ladle the custard over the bread until it’s used or up the dish is full. Give the bread at least 30 minutes to soften and soak up some of the custard before cooking.
Put the dish on a baking tray in the oven for 25-35 minutes or until the custard is firm and the bread is a good gold colour.
Meanwhile warm the marmalade gently in a small pan, take the dish from the oven and brush a thin layer all over the top of the bread.
Allow it cool and firm up and then serve.
