Bread and Butter Pudding

Ingredients

• 8 slices of stale white bread, crusts on
• 80 g soft butter
• 80 g raisins
• 4 eggs
• 400 ml whole milk
• 200 ml double cream
• 100 g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• a whole nutmeg, for grating
• zest of 1 orange

Method

1. Butter the bread generously

   Butter each slice right to the edges and cut into triangles. Stale bread is genuinely better here — fresh bread turns to paste in the custard instead of holding its shape.

2. Layer it standing up

   Overlap the triangles in a buttered dish at an angle rather than lying flat, scattering raisins between the layers. Standing up, the points stay above the custard and crisp; laid flat, everything goes soft.

3. Make the custard

   Warm the milk and cream, then whisk into the eggs, sugar, vanilla and orange zest. Warm, not hot — poured in boiling it scrambles the eggs on contact.

4. Soak it

   Pour the custard over, pressing the bread down, and leave 30 minutes. This soaking is what makes the inside set into custard rather than leaving dry bread in a puddle.

   30 min

5. Bake in a bain-marie

   Grate nutmeg over, sit the dish in a roasting tin of hot water, and bake at 170°C until puffed, golden and just set. The water bath keeps the custard from curdling at the edges.

   40 min

6. Rest

   Rest 10 minutes; it firms up as it stands. Serve with cream, or cold from the fridge the next day, which some people prefer.

   10 min