Bread & Butter Pudding (With Madagascan Vanilla Custard)

Recipe: Bread & Butter Pudding Recipe »

This butter bread and butter pudding recipe is incredibly rich and luxe! With a deliciously buttery croissant base that soaks up the vanilla drenched double cream plus a Madagascan vanilla custard, this may be the best bread and butter pudding you've ever made.

About This Bread & Butter Pudding

Bread and butter pudding is traditional British dessert where slices of bread are buttered and layered with raisins and covered in an egg custard mixture. It's a wonderful winter dessert and it's usually made with stale white bread as a way to use it up. This version uses butter croissants which incredibly well in place of buttered bread. I've tried bread and butter pudding with brioche too but nothing beats croissants IMHO. I was inspired to make this by the one served at Wiltons in London where it is served in squares with Madagascan vanilla custard and I was inspired by Chef Raymond Blanc's recipe for bread and butter pudding from his book Kitchen Secrets.

Ingredients for Bread and Butter Pudding

• Green raisins - these are larger than regular raisins and I love using these as they plump up really nicely. I also use these in rum and raisin ice cream. They're usually found at speciality delis and nut stores.
• Rum - no need to use a fancy rum for this. I used a Captain Morgan spiced rum.
• Butter croissants - check that the croissants that you buy are made with butter. Usually at bakeries they use butter but do check if you buy them at supermarket. This just won't have the same incredible taste without butter.
• Cream - this is a rich dish so we use a combination of double cream and single, pure or thickened cream.
• Eggs - Normally I would say use 8 egg yolks but we are in an egg shortage so instead we compromise with 3 eggs and 5 egg yolks. But if you want it to be super rich, use 8 egg yolks.
• Sugar - we are using caster or superfine sugar for the egg custard as it needs to be finer in texture so that it melts into the custard. But on top we want a coarse demerara or raw sugar for crunch.
• Vanilla bean paste - For this recipe and the custard we are using a Madagascan vanilla bean paste. It is said to be one of the best vanillas or the "gold standard" that is consistently good although I find most vanilla bean pastes to be of a very good standard.
• Ground cinnamon - while most of the flavour is from vanilla, cinnamon adds a warmth to this pudding.
• Butter - normally you would use a lot of butter to butter the bread but for this recipe we just use some butter to dot the top of the pudding when baking and the butter is in the actual croissants.

Tips For Making Bread & Butter Pudding

1 - I've given the weight for croissants as they vary so much in size.

2 - Cutting croissants is easy with a serrated knife (I use this knife for bread). The croissants I used were 55g/2ozs each so I cut them in quarters and then the middle pieces in half.

3 - If the croissants are fresh then you only need to soak this pudding for 10-15 minutes or so. If the croissants are stale or have been frozen and thawed so they are a bit dry inside, then you may need to rest it for up to 30 or even 40 minutes. To test whether it is ready, press down and you can feel that the croissant is "squidgy" (haha a technical term!), soft and pushes down easily, then it is ready.

4 - My baking dish was 26x19x6cms/10x7.4x2.3inches in size with a 2.4 litre/2.5quart capacity. This is the baking dish I used.

5 - I place the raisins in the middle layer of the pudding as I don't like it when they get burnt on top once baked.

Other ideas for bread puddings are this Turkish Fig Pudding using Turkish dried figs and Turkish bread or this Chocolate & Raspberry Matzo Bread Pudding because you can make bread pudding using matzo crackers. And it doesn't have to be all sweet because this breakfast souffle is savoury and uses up half a loaf of sourdough bread as the souffle base.

Bread & Butter Pudding Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 15 minutes plus 20 minutes resting

Cooking time: 45 minutes plus 10 minutes for custard

Serves: 8 people

Ingredients Needed

• 100g/3.5ozs green raisins
• 80ml/2.8flozs rum
• 550g/1.2lbs butter croissants
• 400ml/14flozs double cream
• 300ml/10.6ozs single, pure or thickened cream
• 3 eggs
• 5 egg yolks
• 180g/6ozs caster or superfine sugar
• 1/3 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 30g/1oz butter, cold and cut into small cubes
• 1.5 tablespoons raw or demerara sugar

Madagascan Vanilla Custard

• 1 cup/250ml/8.8flozs milk (full cream)
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons caster of superfine sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornflour/fine cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons Madagascan vanilla bean paste

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 - Place the raisins and the rum in a microwave proof bowl and microwave for 2 minutes on high. Otherwise place in a small saucepan and heat up gently on low heat so that the raisins plump up and most of the rum evaporates into the fruit. Set aside.

Step 2 - Cut the croissants into inch size pieces. Heat both creams up in a medium saucepan until almost boiling. Meanwhile whisk the eggs, yolks, sugar and salt together in a jug. Once small bubbles appear around the rim of the cream, pour a ladle of cup of cream into the jug of egg mixture and whisk. Repeat with another ladle of hot cream and whisk well. The sugar should now be dissolved - test by feeling the mixture between your fingers. Add the egg mixture in with the rest of the cream and then cook very gently on low heat and allow to thicken a little for 2-3 minutes. Whisk in vanilla bean paste and cinnamon. You don't need this to be too thick.

Step 3 - Place half of the croissant pieces in a baking dish and sprinkle the raisins and any rum over these. Then pour half of the custard on top of this. Then place the remainder of the croissant pieces on top of the other layer and pour the remaining half of the custard. At first it will seem like too much custard but it will soak in. Allow to sit for 10 minutes if the croissants are fresh. If they aren't, allow more time, up to 30-40 minutes for the custard to absorb. You will be able to tell when the custard has pretty much absorbed into the croissants.

Step 4 - Preheat oven to 170C/340F fan forced. Sprinkle the top of the pudding with raw sugar and dot with butter cubes. Bake uncovered for 35 minutes. Let sit for 40 minutes to set.

Step 5 - 10 minutes before you want to serve it make the custard. Heat the milk in a small saucepan on the stove on medium heat until almost boiling. Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together in a jug and then add a ladle of the hot milk into this (similar to how you made the custard for the pudding). Whisk to loosen this up and then add another 1/4 cup of milk and whisk until the sugar has dissolved.

Step 6 - Add the egg milk mixture back to the pot with the remaining milk and stir and cook gently in low heat for 10 minutes stirring frequently to prevent it catching. It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Stir in the vanilla and serve with squares of the pudding.

Personal Note

I once bought a huge amount of vanilla beans back home from overseas until I found a good source for them. And then after that I sort of transitioned from making my own vanilla extract to just using a vanilla bean paste, just for convenience sake. I'm sort of relieved because I didn't have the luggage space to spare! There's some sort of pride with travel writers that whoever has the lightest or smallest luggage is winning the imaginary competition. Everyone notices and compliments them and wonders how they manage to travel with so little. You get even more points if you can fit everything into a carry-on.

When I recently went to Switzerland and travelled with a large group of media my luggage was always the biggest and the heaviest. I like to say that it's because I had to travel the farthest but realistically it's because I get cold really easily so I brought lots of layers and I also brought along all the accoutrements for a good night's sleep.

I love my sleep. I need a lot of it and 99% of the time I sleep like a baby. But in order to get this restful sleep I need a few things to go right: I need my own pillow and I need a humidifier. And I also need soft sheets but I draw the line at bringing my own sheets. But when I told the group that I had a humidifier in my luggage they fell about laughing. I think they thought I had a giant humidifier in there (and that would certainly explains the big, heavy luggage). Mine is a tiny one about the size and shape of a tin of tomatoes (but much lighter)! But I liked the idea of them thinking that I had a massive one in my luggage!

So tell me Dear Reader, what is something that you need to take with you when you travel? What is the funniest thing that you've brought back in your luggage?

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