Bread and butter pudding with cranberries and lemon zest
I baked these baps and damned if I'm going to waste them!
As they say; waste not, want not…
It was New Year’s Day yesterday and it’s been absolutely pissing it down in the UK.
At least it’s not cold at the moment though I’ve been reliably informed that our first week of year 2012 will be very wet, very windy and will soon also be very, very cold. Grr-eat!
As entertainment was needed to be found indoors, I ended up cooking up a storm because we’re trying to do a massive fridge clear out in addition to using up perishable things we bought over the holidays. For the first time in two weeks, I have been able to see the back of my fridge again, phew!
Just after Christmas, I baked some baps so we could make cold turkey sandwiches but I still had one large bap and one small bap left over which had become too stale to toast. My ever childish husband can’t stop sniggering whenever he sees the word ‘baps’, he is SUCH a child!
Fresh lemon zest and dried cranberries to replace the traditional currants and raisins
I could have fed the ducks swimming in Hell’s Ditch but the rain conveniently gave me an excuse to stay indoors so I decided to make a bread and butter pudding instead.
Unfortunately, I have a husband who is extremely adverse to currants and raisins so I’ve made my bread and butter pudding with cranberries and lemon zest instead. The result = yum, yum and triple yum eggy, bready deliciousness!
Just for a bit of fun, I used my escargot dish to make a ‘sharing’ portion for my man and I, and what a great idea it was. Now if I owned a restaurant, I’d offer this up as a sharing dessert portion and probably be able to charge a fortune for it! Shame I don’t own a restaurant then…
I made a sharing plate using my escargot dish
Our sharing plate never made it out of the kitchen. We stood at our kitchen counter and devoured every perfectly baked bit of custardy bread, with a dollop of clotted cream on each scrumptious mound.
Fresh out of the oven - perfect bite sized pieces of eggy, custardy sweet bread
30 minutes to bake, 30 seconds to devour
There’ll be hell to pay burning this off on the cross trainer tomorrow but in the meantime, I feel marginally better knowing that I’m using every bit of food I’ve either bought or made these last two weeks. Helps that it all tastes bloody delicious too! 🙂
A bread and butter pudding made with cranberries and lemon zest
For my bread and butter pudding, with cranberries, , click here or keep reading below (I’ve provided the bread recipe too).
Lots of love
thebigfatnoodle
Bread and butter pudding but with cranberries (serves 4 as a dessert)
Stale bread always works best!
1 (stale) large white bap, cut in half and buttered generously
1 (stale) small white bap, cut in half and buttered generously
The two (stale) heels from a sandwich loaf (wholemeal in our case), buttered generously on the bread side
350 ml of whole milk
120 ml double cream
4 large eggs, beaten
100 grams castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
I love this recipe, it is just so simple to make but is always a winner.
½ – ¾ cup dried cranberries
Freshly grated nutmeg
Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
Brown sugar for sprinkling
Extra butter for dabbing onto the pudding
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees (Celsius).
Cut your butter bread into chunks and toss them into a baking dish. Scatter your grated lemon zest and dried cranberries over your bread.
In a mixing jug, beat your eggs, cream, sugar, vanilla extract and ground cinnamon until combined. Pour your mixture over the bread.
Grate nutmeg over the bread and finish by dabbing a few small bits of butter over the pudding with a sprinkling of brown sugar over the top.
Pop this into the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Serve it piping hot with some brandy butter (if you have some left over) or some clotted cream.
Stake bread, custard, dried fruit and some spices. Brilliant!
Soft white baps/rolls (makes 3 large baps and 3 small baps)
Punch me! Seriously!
10 grams active dry yeast
60 ml warm water
250 ml warm milk
37 grams shortening
1 large egg
25 grams sugar
A good pinch of salt
435 gram plain flour
In a mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and milk. Then add the shortening, eggs, sugar, salt and flour. Mix until you form a soft, sticky dough.
I transferred the dough to my stand mixer and using the dough hook, mixed the dough for about 6-8 minutes – the dough stays really quite sticky.
I then turned it out into an oiled bowl, covered the dough and left it to rest in a warm place for an hour, which allows the dough to double in size.
After an hour, punch the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide it into the number of baps you’d like to make, cover the rolls with a damp cloth and allow it to rise again, about another half an hour.
Meantime, preheat the oven to 180 degrees (Celsius) and bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
thebigfatnoodle 
I LOVE bread and butter pudding – what a British classic. Yours looks absolutely amazing, Noodle! I think I ought to do it for my blog, it certainly is a frugal dessert. I’m shove it on my never ending list of things to cook!
Please do! There can never be enough bread and butter pudding recipes. I had to use 2 slices of wholemeal but have to admit they weren’t as nice. I’m sticking to white bread only next time!
Hehehe I love the little bread pudding bites! Using cranberries and lemon is brilliant…I will try that next time!
I’m pretty pleased though though would personally use more cranberries than I actually did. It helped that the bread I made is actually quite sweet! Can’t wait to see your bread pudding recipe too!
I had to look them up, baps, that is; I have to admit a snicker as well! My mother in law lived bread pudding, we haven’t really had it or made it since. This recipe looks like a great way to use leftovers. I’m cleaning the fridge out today, should be fun!
I’m not a bread fan but I do love leftovers and stale bread works perfectly in a bread and butter pudding. Hope the fridge clearing went well, it’s often always a painful and guilty process, especially when you find things that you really should have used. 😦
I love bread pudding – for breakfast or dessert – yummy:) Thanks for sharing!
Always a pleasure posting recipes I get to eat LOL!
Mmm this looks sooo good. I absolutely love bread pudding, and this looks like yummy twist with fresh flavors.
The cranberries and lemon zest worked really, really well!
Love the idea of the mini bite size pieces of bread and butter pudding – such a classic well loved pud.
🙂 Mandy
Yes I do love that escargot dish. I got it at a car boot sale for one pound!! I kept trying to think of other itty bitty things I can cook in it 🙂