Bakery & Butter pudding by Peter Gordon

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

50 - 80g butter at room temperature
500 – 700g mixed bakery, sliced 2cm thick (more layers help to give a good texture)
8 eggs
1⁄2 cup sugar (any colour), honey or golden syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla essence (or better still – use vanilla extract or paste for a more pure taste)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1.5 litres milk
An extra 1⁄2 cup sugar for the top of the pudding

Method

1 - Oven 180*C.
2 - Butter a deep-sided roasting dish (30 x 20 - 30cm) or tart tin (30cm diameter) using a pastry brush or use your fingers
3 - Lay the bakery in – two or more layers is best, make sure the layers aren’t sitting perfectly on top of each other – you want to milky mixture to flow between the layers
4 - Beat the eggs and sugar till foamy, about 30 seconds, then beat in the vanilla, cinnamon and ginger for 20 seconds
5 - Slowly whisk in half the milk and once emulsified gently whisk in the rest
6 - Pour over the bakery, and gently press it down to help the bakery absorb the liquid
7 - Sprinkle with the extra sugar and rest for 20 minutes. Push the bakery into the milky mixture one last time
8 - Bake 30 – 40 minutes in the middle of the oven until the top is crusty and the pudding is cooked in the middle – insert a skewer or small sharp knife – there shouldn’t be any wet uncooked mixture
9 - Take from the oven and leave to rest for at least 10 minutes before serving

TIPS

Bakery Pudding
Use up old bread or cakes to make a bread & butter pudding. What you use as your base will depend on what you have to use up. We had Hot Cross buns, pink iced cupcakes, chocolate biscuits, and some sweetened brioche. So long as nothing is too savoury (ie bacon and egg pie, spinach tart etc) most things should work well.

And if nothing is sweet (ie you’re using sandwich bread or unsweetened brioche or plain croissants) then you’ll need to add extra sweetening to make it more like a dessert. Some dried fruit or chocolate is always good too! Serve with fresh or roast fruit (similar to the apricots used in the starter) and lightly whipped or runny cream or ice cream.

Reviving fruit
Use up old fruit by roasting. Sprinkle with sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice and roast in the oven until slightly browned. This will last a week in the fridge.

Pickled vegetables
1 - Any vegetable that may be going off in your fridge can be pickled e.g. cauliflower, carrots, radishes etc.
2 - Slice and dice the vegetables.
3 - 3 parts vinegar, 2 parts water and 1 part sugar. Mix together.
4 - Sprinkle over the vegetables salt, garlic cloves and peppercorns for flavour. Pour vinegar mix over the vegetables, cover and leave for an hour.