Bread and butter pudding

I was looking through an Italian recipe book for the ingredients for pesto and somehow strayed into another section, as so often happens. I’m not a great one for desserts but somehow this was what I was looking at and I came across a recipe for English bread and butter pudding. The book was published in 1950, so it is obviously an old and traditional favourite.

Whenever I make it I don’t really consult a recipe, but when I looked through the ingredients and instructions in the book, it was pretty much as I make it. It always varies slightly because the bread might be slightly drier, or older, or thicker, or brown or white or with seeds in, so the quantity of milk and egg varies, but in essence this is what I do:

• butter both sides of slices of bread (stale, old, dry, fresh, it doesn’t matter)
• layer in a shallow dish with dried fruit sprinkled liberally
• Beat 2 to 3 eggs into a pint of milk and add sugar if you like a sweeter pud
• Pour over sliced bread and leave to soak as long as you like
• sprinkle with a little brown sugar if you like
• put it into an oven pre-heated to 180C/355F/Gas 4. and bake for 30-40 minutes

I’ve read other people’s recipes where they do their own thing:

• spread the buttered bread with jam or marmalade
• sprinkle chocolate chips instead of dried fruit
• use other fruit such as apricots or mangoes instead of dried fruit
• add candied peel to the fruit
• sprinkle the top with cinnamon or nutmeg or mixed spice
• add vanilla to the egg and milk mixture
• add cream to the milk and egg mixture
• add whisky or brandy to the egg and milk mixture
• use panettone or sourdough or stale hot cross buns, or any other left over bready thing

I expect there are as many variations and family favourites as there are people who make it!