English Bread Pudding
INGREDIENTS:
18 fl oz whole milk
18 fl oz heavy cream
1 Madagascar vanilla pod split and beads scraped
1 stick butter
6 large eggs
9oz sugar
6 bread rolls
1 oz raisins or sultanas
Cinnamon (enough to sprinkle on top of Bread Pudding)
1 cup custard sauce (recipe below)
For the Custard Sauce:
1 cup whole milk
¼ cup sugar
3 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 jigger Brandy (or to taste)
DIRECTIONS FOR CUSTARD SAUCE:
Bring milk to a simmer in a saucepan stirring to avoid burning.
Whisk egg yolks with sugar in a bowl until blended, then gradually whisk in the hot milk mixture.
Return the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and reaches 170 degrees F on an instant read thermometer.
Add jigger of brandy to sauce and stir until completely blended.
Remove sauce from heat and pour through a fine sieve into a metal bowl and place in a larger bowl full of ice and cold water. Stir in the vanilla extract and whisk the custard until cool.
When cooled, cover the surface with a piece of wax paper to prevent a skin from forming.
DIRECTIONS FOR PUDDING:
Preheat oven to 325° F
Brink whole milk and heavy cream to the boil in a saucepan
Grease a large casserole dish with butter
Mix eggs and vanilla sugar until pale, then gradually add the hot milk and cream mixture (1 Tbsp at a time), stirring constantly to avoid the eggs from scrambling.
Slice bread rolls into thin slices and butter both sides of each slice.
Arrange the slices, leaning against each other in the casserole dish.
Sprinkle the raisins (sultanas) in between the bread slices and a few on top. Then add the milk mixture to the casserole, pouring over the bread slices.
Let mixture cool, cover and refrigerate the soaked bread roll slices overnight.
The next day, prepare a roasting pan and fold a few layers of newspapers in the bottom of the baking pan.
Boil water and pour the boiling water over the newspapers, which creates a water bath (bain-marie). Place the casserole dish into the water bath and bake for 45 – 50 minutes (the water should come up halfway on the side of the casserole dish).
The water bath will keep the bread from drying out. This method will create a smooth custardy texture, while the top of the bread will be crusty.
Remove bread pudding from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes before serving.
Sprinkle some cinnamon and some sliced toasted almonds on top of the casserole.
Heat the Brandy custard sauce and drizzle over each serving of the bread pudding.
NOTE: A bain-marie is a roasting pan or baking tray half filled with hot water in which dishes like pates and terrines, custards and soufflé puddings, and delicate mousses are cooked. The water is brought to a boil, then the dishes are inserted into the water and both the pan and the casserole go together into the pre-heated oven. The casserole is protected from the direct heat, cooking at the temperature of the water, not the oven. Bain-marie cooking also produces moisture in which the food poaches rather than bakes. The addition of newspaper to the roasting tray protects the dish even more from the direct heat and prevents the water from boiling, which could cause the mixture to curdle. Add more hot water if needed, but never allow the water to overflow into the dish. The bread pudding should jiggle slightly when completely cooked.
