Cranberry & Orange Bread and Butter Pudding
A classic bread and butter pudding, turned into a delicious, festive dessert/breakfast with cranberries, fresh orange and warming spices.
Servings 6 servings
Equipment
- 1 oven-safe baking dish (a standard pie dish OR a rectangular baking dish, about 18 x 27 x 5cm)
Ingredients
- 60 g unsweetened dried cranberries
- 1 orange, zest and juice.
- 50 g + 1 heaped tsp caster sugar
- 60 g unsalted butter, softened (plus extra for greasing).
- 215 g stale bread, sliced (see Note 1).
- 2 eggs
- 285 ml milk (see Note 2).
- 285 ml double cream (see Note 2).
- 1/8 tsp ground allspice
- 1/16 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated.
- 1 splash vanilla extract
- 1 pinch fine sea salt
Instructions
- Grease the baking dish with butter and set aside. Don't preheat the oven just yet (the bread and butter pudding needs to stand for 30 minutes before baking). The pudding will be baked at 170°C (conventional, not fan).
- Place the cranberries, orange zest and juice, and the heaped tsp of caster sugar into a small saucepan over medium heat. Stirring frequently, bring to the boil, then cook for a further 30 seconds before removing from the heat and setting aside to cool.
- Spread the bread slices thickly with the butter, then cut into your desired shapes.
- Arrange half of the bread pieces, butter-side up, in the greased baking dish. Sprinkle over half of the remaining sugar, along with all of the cooled, soaked cranberries (and any liquid). Arrange the remaining bread pieces on top, butter-side up, sprinkle over the remaining sugar, then set aside while you make the custard.
- For the custard, whisk the eggs together in a bowl until combined. Add the milk and cream, then whisk well. Pour the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug, to remove any stringy bits of egg.
- Add the allspice, nutmeg, vanilla and salt to the custard and mix well.
- Pour the custard evenly over the bread, then leave to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking.
- Bake the pudding at 170°C for 45-55 minutes, until golden and puffed. Allow the baked pudding to stand for 5-10 minutes before serving warm.
Notes
- You can use lots of different types of bread for this recipe: plain, white, sliced bread works well, as do enriched breads such as challah and brioche. It needs to be stale to absorb the custard well. You can either leave the crusts on or cut them off— it's entirely up to you.
- I use a 50:50 ratio of milk:cream, but you can use any ratio you would like, as long as the total quantity of liquid adds up to 570ml.