The dangers of making brioche when you are by yourself are that you either a) eat it all yourself or b) have a tonne of it left over which looks at you longingly until you either c) eat it or d) turn it into pudding which you then e) eat.
I myself did the latter. Which would be d). And then e).
A couple of pages after the chocolate brioche recipe in the
Treats from Little and Friday
book was an equally glorious recipe for bread and butter puddings.
However these were not your average bread and butter puddings.
These were chocolate, brioche, raspberry and almond bread and butter puddings. All doused in a glorious tonne of custard.
Excellent, I think yes.
Bread and butter pudding was originally devised as a clever method of using up stale bread. In the good old days when people actually worked (as in hard labour) for a living, energy requirements were high and pudding was somewhat a necessity to stop a man from wasting away. In the same old days one simply did not throw out food. Waste not, want not as my Nana would say.
Eggs, butter, milk and sugar were mixed in with stale bread and baked until a stodgy delight resulted. It was a cheap but well loved creation. Something of a comfort food.
In all honesty, up until now I was never a fan of the old bread and butter pudding. It was the texture I think. It just wasn't for me. The white slices of bread slathered in butter. It was kind of a pale and sickly mess.
Little and Friday recipes, in my opinion, are notorious for being excessive in their ingredient lists. Which normally I am not ok with. I can't exactly afford an entire crops worth of hazelnuts. The only thing excessive in this recipe is the number of eggs required. Seven. Perfect. I had seven eggs in my fridge that desperately needed using. Winning!
This is probably the simplest pudding to made (once you have already made the brioche of course). It is almost worth making a double batch of brioche just to ensure you have enough left overs for this the next evening.
The trick to a super moist pudding is to allow the brioche time to soak up the liquid. I started this at around four in the afternoon and it didn't go in the oven until about 8pm. Half an hour for soaking should suffice however.
Brioche and Butter Pudding
adapted from Treats from Little and Friday by Kim Evans
Serves 8
4-6 large stale chocolate brioche (Texan muffin pan sized), sliced into 2cm slices
100g hazelnut chocolate and or good quality dark chocolate
1 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 cup ground almonds
2 cups of milk
1 cup cream
7 eggs
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/4 cup sliced almonds
Grease the bottom and sides of a small baking dish. I would say mine is around 20x25cm.
In a small bowl, mix together the raspberries, ground almonds and chocolate together until everything is coated with the almonds.
Whisk together the milk, cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla in a large jug.
Place a single layer of brioche slices on the base of the baking dish. Sprinkle over a layer of the raspberry mix. Pour over about a third of the egg mix.
Repeat with the next layer. You don't want the chocolate to burn so only use the raspberry chocolate mix on the inner layers of the pudding.
Once you have reached the top layer, pour the rest of the egg mix over the top. Cover with cling film and leave to soak for at least half an hour.
Just before baking, sprinkle over the sliced almonds.
Bake for 40-50 minutes in an oven at 170 degrees. Bake until the custard has set to your desired consistency (if you aren't into soggy desserts then I would keep it in on the longer end of the spectrum).
Spoon into bowls and serve hot!
Enjoy!
