Bread & Butter Pudding is one of the cheap and easy to make, old recipes that restaurants have cottoned onto and made posh. And expensive! But it’s a tasty treat to make from simple ingredients and a great way to use up dry bread, or eggs that are past their best.
As with much of the cooking in our house here at Visit Fylde Coast, we just knock it together quickly and throw it in the oven. Masterchef we are not, but we do like a nice warm pudding on a cold day! So here’s our recipe for you to try and adapt.
Bread & Butter Pudding
Serves four in our house, although you could spin it out to five servings – maybe!
Cost: This pudding is made using cheap store cupboard ingredients and things that need using up. So probably no more than £1 for 4 portions.
Money Saving: Don’t buy any special ingredients, just use what you have in the house. Only use skimmed milk? Your version will be a healthier version than if you specially bought full fat milk!
Tip: It’s really easy to make and you can change the recipe to suit your own taste buds. If you like it thick and creamy you could add cream or condensed milk. Or make it a bit more runny. Top it off with nutmeg and mixed peel or not. What about trying a brown version, and spread the bread with marmalade? There are loads of things you could do to make it your own.
You can do all of the preparation well in advance. The custard mix is actually best left to stand for a little while before using.
You will need:
- four slices of bread
- butter or margarine or whatever you use
- dried fruit – currants, sultanas or raisins
- 1/2 to 3/4 pint of milk – whatever type you use
- 2 tablespoons sugar + extra to sprinkle on top
- an ovenproof dish
Method
Butter four slices of bread and cut them into quarters. (Margarine is fine). Lay the bread in an ovenproof dish to make a single layer, overlapping them slightly to make them fit. Sprinkle your choice of dried fruit over the top, currants, raisins or sultanas.
Lay another layer on top and do the same thing with more dried fruit, to fill the dish and use the rest of the bread.
Measure 3/4 of a pint of milk, then add 2 eggs into the jug. Whisk it all together with an ounce (couple of tablespoons) or so of sugar, depending on how sweet a tooth you have.
When you’re ready to put it in the oven, pour the custard mix over the bread, covering the top slices and dampening them.
Sprinkle brown sugar (or white if that’s all you have) over the top. You may want to add a sprinkle of nutmeg.
Bake in the oven until it’s as set as you like it. We do ours for about 30 minutes on about 180 Celsius so that it’s crunchy on top and custardy underneath. Delicious!
All done by eye…
The point of this is that there isn’t a recipe as such. It’s make-do-and-mend dish that you can conjure up out of leftovers. It’s going to taste a bit different every time you make it – that’s part of its charm! If you want more or less of it, just vary the amount of ingredients you use in roughly the same proportions. Remember to use a larger dish…
And since we aren’t Masterchef we usually shove it in the oven on 200 for 20 minutes while something else is cooking. Then turn the oven off to allow it to cook through while we eat our main course – scientific cooking in our house it isn’t!
Just be careful not to cook it for too long on too high a temperature. Because it’s essentially a custard it may split – or set and turn into an omelette!
Other sweet and cheap recipes to try:
Anything to add?
Do you have any variations of this recipe? Is it something that you already enjoy making, food shortage or not?
Elaine Smith got in touch to offer her suggestion. She says ” Try putting glace cherries in your bread & butter pudding as well as replacing half the milk with single cream”. Mmm sounds lovely!
If you’ve got anything to add, leave a comment below.
Why don’t you check out Trevors Foodservice – it’s the large, back-stage business that’s quietly feeding the Fylde Coast! They’re Blackpool’s number one wholesaler of chilled, frozen and ambient foods. And also sell cleaning materials, catering disposables and equipment.
The family firm was first established in Blackpool in 1962. It sells branded products and their Country Range, specially made for the 12-member buying group which Trevors is part of.
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