What am I going to do with all this bread?

As the preparations for the Christmas season continue, I decided to defrost the freezer.


I didn't have much time to dedicate to the task as I'd got to go to Makro to stock up on some essential household items, we were going out for a meal and there were 100 other jobs that needed doing too. So before setting off at 7:30 in the morning, I threw open the doors, stuffed all the food from inside the freezer into a large cool box, switched it off and left it to do it's thing.


I got home just before midday and despite the bitter temperature of the day (the coldest day of the year so far) everything seemed to be progressing fine, which was good, as I had to make lunch and then help Tony, we had just a couple of hours to empty the loft as we were having loft and cavity wall insulation on the Monday. I stuck a couple of trays of boiling water in there to keep it going and went off to help.


Once we'd finished I thought I'd go and give it a wipe round and restock it, but too my horror the top 3 shelves were still thick with ice. I chipped and hammered and chipped some more and got it to a reasonable place, but there was still the little space at the top, Tony came to help and after a few moments of martial discord, he insisted on finishing it while Lauren and I got ready to go out.


He did a fine job and he restocked it from the cool box, but the bread hadn't survived. We had 3 loaves of bread and 3 hot cross buns, that all needed eating before going stale.


Needless to say Sunday had me reaching for recipe books and Internet. Bread pudding seemed like the ideal thing, I know Tony likes it and I'm sure it's one of my dad's favourites and he's coming to stay soon.

Fresh from the oven

Bread Pudding


500g bread of your choice
4-500g mixed dried fruit
85g mixed peel
1½ tbsp mixed spice
600ml milk
2 large beaten eggs
140g light muscovado sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
100g melted butter
Demerara sugar for sprinkling


Rip the bread into pieces and place in a large bowl. Add the fruit, peel and mixed spice. Pour the milk over the dry ingredients and stir well with a wooden spoon. Make sure everything is mixed well and the bread is broken up. Add eggs, sugar and lemon zest. Stir well and set aside to soak for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180C/160C/GM4. Grease and line the base of a 20cm non-stick square cake tin, make sure the lining comes up over the edges so you can use it to lift out the pudding. Stir the melted butter into mixture and tip into the tin. Sprinkle the top with demerara sugar. Bake for 1½ hrs until firm and golden. Use foil to protect it if it starts to brown too much, covering with foil if it starts to brown too much. Once cooked, cool slightly. Turn out of the tin and strip off the paper. Cut into squares and serve warm.


Now I don't actually like bread pudding but I gave this a try and it was lovely, soft and moist with a crunchy top, rich with spice and soft fruit. I only had 400g of fruit, I think it would have taken a bit more. I chopped it all up into squares and now it's in the freezer again!


Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding Experiment


Obviously I still had bread left, we'd had toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and if I'd had the time and ingredients I was still tempted to try out Michel Roux Jrs Duck Charlotte with chicken instead of duck, instead I thought I'd try and experiment. 


I got an oven proof dish and thoroughly buttered it. Then I buttered some bread, cut each slice into 2 triangles and stared to fill the bowl, so that the crusts all stuck up in the air, as I went I sprinkled each slice with demerera sugar and chocolate drops. Finish when the bowl is full, you can still see the white of the slice but brown crusts are spiking up.


Next mix 3 beaten eggs, with 350ml milk, 1 oz caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, a few drops of vanilla essence, beat well, then pour the mix over the bread. Finally sprinkle with more demerera sugar.


Leave to stand for 15 min, then bake at 180C/355F/Gas 4 for somewhere between 30-60 minutes, until golden and crunchy and the mix is set.


Well it was very experimental and when it came out of the oven it looked appalling! Nobody wanted to try it, but do you know what, once they'd tried a bit I couldn't stop them, the top was beautiful and crunchy, it was sweet and chocolatey, the bottom was moist and chocolatey, very agreeable, but not something to serve at a dinner party.


 I think it's big problem was that although the bread had absorbed the chocolate mix from underneath, the butter prevented that from the front giving a strange mottled look. It could work out better if you used a buttery bakery item to make it like croissants or brioche and soak it quickly before assembling.


Of course you don't need to do a chocolate one, omit the cocoa, use sultanas rather than chocolate drops, used granulated sugar not demerera and add some grated nutmeg.


I hope you enjoy it!