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Bread Pudding
This is a steamed pudding based loosely on the style of bread puddings made in some parts of 18th Century England. In that vein, the instructions below are almost as vague.
Ingredients.
- Half a good sized loaf of bread (I used a light rye sourdough that was a couple of days old).
- About ½ cup of currants
- Brandy (sufficient to cover the currants in a small bowl)
- Orange peel – approx 2 – 3 Tablespoons
- 4 eggs
- Milk (maybe a litre – enough to ¾ fill your mixing bowl which should be approx the size of your pudding bowl).
- Sugar – 4 or 5 Tablespoons
- Some nutmeg, and cinnamon.
- Optionally, some blueberries.
Method.
Soak your currants in brandy. Leave to sit while you do the next part.
Cut or break the bread into small pieces (1cm or so).
Whisk the eggs, milk, sugar and spices together. Add the bread pieces and submerge. Leave to sit so the bread soaks up the milk.
Now add the currants and peel (and optional blueberries), mix together.
Grease your pudding bowl liberally with butter. Tip the pudding mix into the pudding bowl, and cover with two layers of baking paper. Tie with string as per a steamed pudding, making sure to make a string handle to pick it up with.
Place on four pieces of cork in your slow cooker (this prevents the bottom over cooking, and the bowl from rattling), and place the pudding bowl on the corks.
Fill the slow cooker with water to just below the lip of the pudding bowl. Cover, and set on low for anywhere from 8 to 24 hours. The longer it cooks, the more the mix caramelises (as seen by the darker section of the pudding in the picture above). I opted for approx. 20 hours and it came out perfectly.
When done, remove from the slow cooker, and leave to cool slightly on the bench for about an hour.
When ready to serve, remove the paper, run a butter knife around the edge of the pudding, place a dinner plate (inverted) over the top of the bowl, then invert the plate and bowl together to tip out the pudding.
You can prepare a quick pudding sauce using equal parts butter, sugar (unrefined, or a mix of brown and castor), and sweet sherry. If you don’t have the sherry, use Irish whiskey, but reduce the quantity by two thirds.
Serve with sauce and ice-cream.
Did you like this recipe? You might also like:
- Light Caramel Macadamia Pie
- Lemon Meringue Pie
- Meringue (or what to do with leftover egg whites)
- Clafoutis
- Fig and Apple Tarte
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