Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding
Serves 6-8
This is a variation on basic bread and butter pudding. If you like, leave out the marmalade and serve plain, or add chopped rhubarb, chopped chocolate, grated lemon or orange zest, raisins, sultanas, cinnamon, nutmeg etc. This is a great way to use up stale bread, and in fact is better if the bread is stale.
12 slices of good –quality white bread, crusts removed
50g (2 ozs/1/2 stick) soft butter
3-4 tablespoons (3-4 American tablespoons + 3-4 teaspoons) marmalade
450ml (16fl.ozs/2 cups) cream
225ml (8fl.oz/1 cup) milk
4 eggs
150g (5 1/2 oz/scant 3/4 cups) caster sugar
2 tablespoons (2 American tablespoons + 2 teaspoons) granulated sugar
To Serve
softly whipped cream
marmalade sauce
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Butter the bread and spread marmalade on each slice. Arrange the bread butter side down in the gratin dish or in individual cups or bowls (cut the slices if you need to). I like to have overlapping triangles of bread on the top layer.
Place the cream and milk in a saucepan and bring to just under the boil. While it’s heating up, in a separate bowl whisk the eggs and the caster sugar, then pour the hot milk and cream in with the eggs and whisk to combine. Pour this custard over the bread and leave it to soak for 10 minutes. Sprinkle the granulated sugar on top. Place in a bain marie (water bath) and cook in the preheated oven for 1 hour. The top should be golden and the centre should be just set. Serve with softly whipped cream and marmalade sauce (see below).
Note: If you want to make this a day ahead of time, don’t heat up the milk and cream, just pour it cold over the bread.
Marmalade Sauce
1 jar (400-450g/14ozs – 1lb) 3 fruit or homemade marmalade
60ml (2 1/2 fl ozs/generous 1/4 cup) water
juice of 1/2 – 1 lemon
Put the marmalade into a saucepan. Add the water and the juice of 1/2 – 1 lemon to taste. Heat all the ingredients gently. Place in a jug and serve with the bread and butter puddin