My Dad’s Fave Bread & Butter Pudding

As promised, I ordered Mary Berry’s – ultimate OAP style icon – Baking Bible. And it truly is that – a bible of ultimate home making baking. With all that choice I didn’t know what to do first – but her Bread and Butter Pudding looked like exactly what I fancied in this rubbish weather – warm and comforting. And I knew how much my dad loved it so it was a no brainer.

I made it on my day off – didn’t need anything too fancy or any posh tools. It says it’s best if left for at least an hour in the fridge, but I made it about 2pm, and took it round to my mum’s about 5ish, and cooked it there – it was delicious.

Here’s the recipe – easy to follow and bloody delicious..

Ingredients
– 12 thin slices of bread, crusts removed
– 100g of butter, melted (although I ended up needing double this somehow..)
– 250g mixed dried sultanas and currants (although I found raisins which was fine too)
– 75 g caster sugar
– grated rind of a lemon
– 1/2 level teaspoon of ground mixed spice
– 3 large eggs
– 600ml (1 pint) full fat milk (or can use semi, which I did just to attempt to make it slightly healthier – tasted delicious all the same!)
– 2 tablespoons Demerara sugar to sprinkle

Recipe
– Grease an 18 x 23 cm (7 x 9 in) deep ovenproof dish with a little of the melted butter. Measure the dried fruit, sugar, lemon rind and spice into a bowl and mix well. Cut each bread slice into 3 strips.
– Take enough bread strips to cover the base of the dish and dip one side of each strip into the melted butter. Lay them in the prepared dish, buttered side down. Sprinkle with half the dried fruit mixture. Repeat the layering, laying the bread strips buttered side up, and sprinkle with the remaining dried fruit mixture. Lay the third and final layer of bread strips on top, buttered side up.
– Beat together the eggs and milk and pour over the pudding. Sprinkle with Demerara sugar, then leave to stand for about 1 hour if time allows. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/Gas 4.
– Bake in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and crisp and the pudding is slightly puffed up. Serve hot.

TIP You can prepare the pudding ahead of time and keep it covered in the fridge for up to 6 hours before baking. Don’t sprinkle the Demerara sugar over until 1 hour before you are ready to bake.