This recipe utilizes ingredients that you already have on hand; bread, eggs, sugar and milk. A great way to use up stale or day old bread. It can be prepared ahead, cooled after baking and refrigerated.
(Serves 8)
Caramel
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 to 2 tablespoons butter to grease baking dish
In a saucepan, heat sugar with water. Do not stir sugar but swirl the pan. Cook till sugar is dark amber in color. Pour caramel in a baking dish ensuring to spread caramel along the bottom and sides of the dish. Set aside to cool. When caramel is set and dish has cooled down, apply butter along the sides of the dish. This will prevent the pudding from sticking along the sides.
Pudding
Ingredients:
1 loaf of bread (around 15 slices)
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups milk
4 eggs (extra large)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (grated)
1/2 cup of raisins and cashewnuts
Method:
Cut loaf of bread or slices into cubes.
Beat eggs with sugar and then add milk, vanilla and nutmeg. Mix all the ingredients together and add the bread cubes. Press bread down gently so that it soaks in all the liquid. Keep aside for 30 minutes. Stir raisins and cashewnuts before baking.
Pour bread mixture in the baking dish with caramel bottom. Ensure that the dish has cooled down and properly greased along the sides.
Bake pudding in a water bath or bain-marie at 350 F or 180 C for an hour till set. Cool pudding and refrigerate. Before inverting pudding onto a serving dish, run a knife along the sides to loosen it. Decorate with cashewnuts and serve.
Alternatively, the pudding can be steamed.
Note:
- A water bath or bain-marie is a method of heating desserts gradually. A wide deep pan (preferably a roasting pan) that can accommodate a smaller baking dish or pan is used. The smaller pan with the dessert mixture is placed inside the large one. Hot water is poured in the large pan till it reaches halfway up the outside of the smaller pan. The large pan with the hot water and smaller pan containing the dessert mixture is carefully placed in the oven. The water bath method heats the dessert gently, preventing it from burning, drying or curdling.
- Caramel was prepared directly in the cake pan.
- The pudding was steamed.