Bread and Butter Pudding

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Shallow 1.5-litre oven dish
• •Deeper roasting tin for the bain-marie
• •Medium saucepan
• •Whisk
• •Pastry brush (if glazing)

Instructions

1. 1

   Butter the bread

   Butter each slice of bread generously, right to the edges. Don't be mean with it. The butter is doing real work here: it's what makes the tops go crisp and golden while the underneath goes soft and silky. Cut each slice in half on the diagonal so you have triangles. Butter a shallow oven dish, something around 1.5 litres, the kind that has seen a few puddings in its time.

   Slightly stale bread is better than fresh. Fresh bread goes claggy when it soaks. Day-old bread drinks in the custard and still holds its shape.
2. 2

   Layer the dish

   Arrange half the bread triangles in the dish, butter side up, overlapping like roof tiles. Scatter over half the raisins and most of the lemon zest. Lay the rest of the bread on top in the same overlapping way, tuck the remaining raisins between the slices so they don't burn on top, and finish with the demerara sugar scattered across the surface. The demerara is non-negotiable. It's what gives you that crackly, toffee-ish top.

3. 3

   Make the custard

   Warm the milk and cream together in a saucepan over a gentle heat until it steams faintly and smells of warm dairy. Don't let it boil. While it warms, whisk the eggs, caster sugar, vanilla, and salt together in a bowl until just combined. Pour the warm milk over the eggs in a slow stream, whisking as you go. You're not making a hot custard, just bringing everything to the same temperature so it bakes evenly.

   Trust your nose. When the milk starts to smell sweet and rounded instead of raw, it's ready. Boiling milk for custard is a small disaster: it'll taste of the pan.
4. 4

   Pour and soak

   Pour the custard slowly over the bread, letting it seep into every corner. Press the bread down gently with the back of a spoon so the tops catch the custard too. Leave it to soak for at least thirty minutes. This is the part most people skip and it's the part that matters most. The bread needs time to drink. Grate nutmeg generously over the top. More than you think.

5. 5

   Bake until golden

   Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan. Sit the dish in a deeper roasting tin and pour hot water around it until it comes halfway up the sides. A bain-marie. It stops the custard from splitting and keeps everything silky. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the top is deep golden and the custard is set but still trembles slightly when you give the dish a gentle shake. The edges should be puffed and bronzed, the middle just holding itself together.

   If the top is browning too fast before the custard has set, lay a sheet of foil loosely over the dish for the last ten minutes. You want gold, not mahogany.
6. 6

   Glaze and rest

   Lift the dish out of the water bath. If you're glazing, brush the warm apricot jam over the top now, lightly, just to catch the light. Let the pudding rest for ten minutes before serving. It needs this. A bread and butter pudding straight from the oven is all custard and no composure. Ten minutes on the side and it pulls itself together. Serve in deep spoonfuls, with cold cream poured over the top.

Chef Tips

• •The bread is the whole thing. Use a proper white loaf from a baker, slightly stale, with a close crumb. Brioche and panettone make fancier versions and I won't stop you, but there's something honest about plain white bread that suits this pudding best. It's what it was always meant to be made with.
• •Soak the raisins in a splash of warm tea or brandy for ten minutes before layering if you want to give them back some life. Cold dried fruit goes leathery in the oven; plumped fruit stays soft and sweet.
• •Serve it with cold double cream poured straight from the jug, not ice cream and not custard on custard. The cold cream against the warm pudding is the whole pleasure. A small jug on the table so people can help themselves.
• •Leftover bread and butter pudding, eaten cold the next morning with a cup of tea, is one of life's quiet rewards. Don't feel you have to finish it all on the night.

Advance Preparation

• •The pudding can be assembled up to the point of baking and refrigerated for several hours. Bring it back to room temperature before it goes in the oven, or give it an extra ten minutes in the bake.
• •Leftovers keep in the fridge, covered, for up to two days. Eat cold or warm gently in a low oven, never the microwave, which turns the custard rubbery.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 200g)