I like this recipe because you can easily adjust the ingredients according to how much spare, stale bread you have. You can also adjust things like sugar and spice according to taste. Just dip your finger in the bowl and taste as you go. Dave’s sourdough bread is excellent for this recipe, and gives the bread pudding more of the texture and taste that I remember from my childhood.
This recipe is for half a stale sourdough loaf or you can use supermarket bread if you wish.
Break or cut the bread into small chunks including the crust. Put it in a mixing bowl.
Add: half milk half hot water. Enough to make a sloppy mix. Some bread takes longer to soak up the liquid so if you’re not sure, add it in stages. Beat until the lumps are mashed up. You can use cold water; hot works a bit faster.
To the mix add:
Pinch salt
One beaten egg.
One tablespoon sunflower oil or whatever oil you have in the cupboard.
2 -3 teaspoons mixed spice, or according to taste.
2 -3 ounces of caster sugar or according to taste.
A handful of currants
A handful of sultanas.
Raisins if you want.
Mix together well.
Pour the mix into a well greased baking pan but don’t make it more than 2 inches thick otherwise it will take forever to cook through. An inch works better.
Cook for half an hour on 190 Celsius. Then reduce the oven heat to 160 c and cook for a further half an hour. When done It should feel slightly springy like a regular sponge or fruit cake.
The mix might seem a bit wet still, but as it cools it hardens. If your instinct tells you that it needs longer, just put it back in the oven for a while. It won’t hurt it.
Cut it into slices to serve.
Delicious on its own for sticking your insides together on a cold day, or even better served with hot vanilla sauce or English Custard. Haven’t tried it with ice cream, but hey, it might work….
That sounds perfect … My problem is that to get “leftover” bread I will have to bake even more of it, which in the winter would be worth doing just so as to make some of this.
Roger that. I’m thinking of tacking a recipe for real custard on the end of your post before some wretch mentions Bird’s Custard Powder, which would be a tragedy of indescribable proportions…
Hi kids -
Been very busy and so have been scarce. But i’ve been obsessed with this song for the past week, and of course it made me think of you lot -
Amy; i forgot this tune. Thanks. Are you a fan of Steve Marriot?
I forgot this old favourite by Leon Redbone; Mr. Jellyroll Baker
Mike -
I’m a massive Steve Marriott fan. But i’ve usually been focused on the Pie part of his career, but. lately i’ve been into the 60′s grooviness of the Small Faces
wtf? That was me of course.
Amy; The Small Faces mod rock doesn’t do a lot for me, but when they recorded Tin Soldier, they made a big move into R&B. There is a great live version on Youtube.
I’m glad Di-Ohso brought up stale bread, we can roll with this, (no pun intended).Staling in baked goods is the result of two things; moisture loss & crystallization of starches. This can be temporarily reversed by re-warming the product at about 150-200 degrees F., for 15-20 min. You can put the product in a paper bag and spritz with water also, before putting into an oven. Or just make toast, grilled sandwhiches, or…yummy bread pudding.
NEVER use a microwave with baked goods.
Mikes’ Grilled Cheese Sandwhich
Not for the cholesterally challenged
This makes 2-3 sandwhiches, depending on the size of the slices, and how much you fill them.
Make some garlic butter, enough to coat one side of each bread slice.
Make a sandwhich filling: I do this by eye – 1/2 cup spreadable cream cheese; 3/4 cup grated sharp cheddar; 1 baby dill pickle grated fine. Mix this together, and divide up for the bread. Grill in your favourite way and eat over the sink.
If anyone desires it, You can make Welsh Rarebit also.
Mikedow:
You’re cruel, cruel…
BTW. Dave’s sourdough lasts for a surprisingly long time…Longer than supermarket bread that’s for sure. I haven’t had a loaf that’s gone hard yet and they’re only kept in a plastic bread bag in the cupboard.
Di-Ohso; I can’t eat it anymore myself, alas. I store my bread in a paper bag, inside a plastic bag or container. the paper lets the bread breathe, but the plastic keeps it from too much moisture loss.
Mikedow:
A toasted cheese sandwich – I liked using vintage Somerset Cheddar – used to be one of life’s little pleasures especially when it was washed down with a nice cup of tea. It’s not fair is it.
Toasted rye, slathered in butter! I miss it.
heh heh – that made me laugh.
Sourdough does keep longer, yes.
After about four days, if there is any of a loaf remaining, I do tend to make toast or grilled sandwiches with it. It also makes pretty decent garlic bread, spread with garlic butter and blasted under the broiler until you like the look of it.
If there’s still any left, and really dried out, then Di’s bread pudding would be hard to beat, and sometimes I cube it up, toss with a little salt and olive oil, then bake on a cookie sheet as croutons for salads. Not bad.
Breadcrumbs too.
Microwaves are only of use as targets for sighting-in the deer rifle in the Autumn so far as I’m concerned, but then I’m notoriously cranky about such things. Mike’s right about their destructiveness for baked goods – better to just feed the ducks.
Ah there you have me – I still use butter. Tried every substitute and couldn’t find one I could live with, but I stopped eating practically everything else that contained fats including cheese, and only use rape seed oil to cook with. Hate the taste it gives the food though. I try to stick to 4% or under fat content.
Was actually told by the heart clinic nurse that butter wouldn’t hurt: in fact some diary is essential for healthy bones as we age.
I can live without junk food and snacks and put up with food not tasting the same. After fourteen years I’ve lost the taste for much of it, but I still love and miss cheese.
Hold on there
Microwaves are the cats ass…If I want warm bread, not toast, 15 sec. and I’ve got warm bread, 1 min. a cup of tea and 2min. and I’ve got nice hot leftover spaghetti. They also thaw out frozen meat in a jiffy. Put a dab of water on top and they reheat any leftovers, quick…so there.
I did think about you today Gunny…
I pulled out my brand new Rigid brand table saw for the first time and the on/off switch, made in Taiwan, had no parts inside it from the factory. I know this cuz I operated on it and found nothing inside. A grinder with a cut off blade and a steel paint scraper replacement blade for a jumper later and I made the cuts I needed, 45′s to overlap inline 1×4′s for trim. The only part that made me smile, after I got done being pissed, was thinkin of you and your rants about quality tools. I think I’ll go native and put a wall switch on it just for looks
Too much fixit stuff to do to make bread tomarrow…I’d rather make bread ;(
Cochise. Microwaves are good for hotting up cold food and defrosting frozen meat.
Oooh, you make tea in the microwave? Sacrilege. You cannot make a decent cup of tea in a microwave…I know it sounds dopey but it doesn’t boil the water correctly.
Di
See there, I don’t know what a good cup of tea is suppose to taste like, having drunk very little of it in my life, so it didn’t bother me. now I don’t drink ANY coffee or tea, just hot water. My cholesterol was too high in May and by July the numbers dropped 100 points, well within range, eating nothing but fruit, veggies, whole grain and chicken ,fish and turkey…and homemade bread. I don’t need coffee or tea, I seem to be wired enough without it…maybe because I still smoke… I know… another sacrilege.
I’ll forgive you although tea is supposed to be good for you. It’s low in caffeine and high in free radicals or so they say. Whatever, I couldn’t do without my cuppa but well done you for sticking to a healthy diet. I’m glad it’s working. Do you feel better for it? That’s the main thing.
No matter how carefully I eat, I still need a high dose of cholesterol meds.
I still smoke; can’t ever see myself giving it up…