Bread and Butter Pudding with Cinnamon, Grapefruit Zest and Drunken Raisins
I think it’s one of the most loved home puddings. Its preparation may vary across different countries and their individual households. But the essence of it remains the same: sliced bread soaked and baked in custard, filled with warmth and cosiness, and it smells of home.
The pudding makes for a fabulous way of using stale bread, almost of any kind: white sourdough, croissants, brioche loaf or after Christmas you may have some left over panettone or pandoro, and you are not too sure what to do with it. In the recipe below I sliced the challah bread, of which I bake a generous portion at home, always having the bread and butter pudding in mind.
I love adding the extra warmth of ground cinnamon and a hint of citrus – if you are not a fan of grapefruit, orange zest is always a good match. Soaking the raisins in alcohol is optional but worth trying, I use my vanilla infused vodka or rum to do it. Otherwise soak the raisins in warm water for 20-30 minutes and drain.
Serves 4:
- 200 g of bread of your choice, I used challah with sesame seeds (find the recipe here)
- 100 g of caster sugar
- 300 ml of full fat milk
- 200 ml of double cream (you can increase the ratio of the double cream to milk if you like a richer filling)
- 4 eggs
- 2 tablespoons of raisins soaked in vodka or rum*
- half of a vanilla pod, seeds scraped out (or use some good vanilla essence)
- half a teaspoon (or more) of ground cinnamon
- grated zest from half of a grapefruit or an orange
- a pinch of salt
- butter for greasing
- some Demerara sugar for sprinkling
- icing sugar for dusting (optional)
Slice the bread, 0.5 – 1 cm thick.
In a large bowl whisk the milk, the double cream, the eggs, the sugar and a pinch of salt.
Add the vanilla seeds, the cinnamon, the grated citrus zest and the raisins. Stir well.
* If you’ve soaked the raisins in alcohol pour in the flavoured alcohol as well adding an extra egg yolk to the custard mixture to make sure it sets properly.
Dip the sliced bread into the bowl with custard and soak for 10 minutes or so.
Preheat the oven to 190 C / 170 C Fan.
Grease an oval baking dish with some butter.
Pour in 3-4 tablespoons of the custard as a base.
Neatly arrange the soaked bread in the baking dish overlapping the slices. Any pattern you choose will be fine. Pour the remaining custard over the bread.
Sprinkle the top with some Demerara sugar and bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes.
Dust with some icing sugar and serve whilst still warm, perhaps decorating the pudding with some extra drunken raisins.
