Bread pudding is one of the good ones for me. I am talking about proper bread pudding, not bread-and-butter pudding. Good as that is, B&B pudding is very much a dessert, a light egg custard held together with slices of buttered bread and fruit (dried, fresh, even jam). Bread pudding is something quite different, a cake to be eaten alongside a cup of tea, to fill the gap between lunch and dinner, to assuage the after-school hunger of growing kids.
It is as old as the hills, a good working class cake, made by people who couldn’t afford to waste anything. These days, of course, we don’t have to worry about where every last crust will go, and so we make versions that are considerably more luxurious than the ones made in the days during and between the wars. Mine is certainly more fruity and spicey than my mum’s.
Less stodgy too. The wartime recipe I was brought up on had suet and flour in to make it solid and claggy. I loved it at the time, but these days, I want something lighter and less fatty on my palate.
I have been asked many a time for this recipe, but it has always been tricky to get the recipe down. It is, after all, a recipe made to use up leftovers, and for this very reason the quantities are variable, depending on what is actually left over. I know what I want the mix to look like, but how to convey this to someone who hasn’t been there whilst I have been cooking is very difficult, and I take my hat off to recipe developers around the world.
So armed with a pencil and a nowrathersticky notebook, I took the trouble to weigh and measure as I went, and this is what I came up with. Now these measures are not written in stone, this kind of recipe is good natured, it doesn’t depend on strict ratios to work, you can up and down the various ingredients as you feel fit. The bread/egg/butter ratio is probably best kept roughly to this, but you can add more/less fruit, sugar, spice, to suit your own taste.
300g Stale bread, cut roughly into chunks
50g soft brown sugar
250g dried fruit
1 tbs black treacle
50g butter
1 egg, lightly beaten just enough to mix yolk & white together
1 heaped tsp ground mixed spice
Soak the bread in COLD water to cover until the crusts on the bread are nice and soft. Squeeze the water out of the bread until it is as dry as you can get it. Put the squeezed bread into a mixing bowl, throw the water away.
Roughly break the bread up (sort of squish it between your fingers, like making mud pies)
In a small saucepan, melt the butter and black treacle together (TIP warm the spoon first before you get the treacle out of the tin, then it just slides off the spoon into the pan). You just want it warm and runny, don’t let it boil – it turns into toffee pretty quickly.
Add the fruit, egg, sugar and spice to the bread, together with the treacle/butter mix and mix it all up. It should be quite a sloppy mix, very similar to Christmas Pudding.
Turn into a greased and base lined tin – usually people would cook this in a flat traybake tin, but I have recently started cooking it in a 1lb loaf tin, I find that I get more squishy middle bit, which is the bit I like. If you like the crunchy outside, then a traybake will be better for you.
Run a fork over the top surface to roughen it up, and sprinkle with a little extra sugar – demerara is good if you have any, or just ordinary granulated.
Bake at medium temperature (roughly Gas Mark 4, 350/180 degrees but (in particular if you have a fan oven) do check the temperature and timing, the raisins can turn into little charred bullets if your oven cooks hot), for about an hour. It won’t rise much, and when you test it it will probably still be a little damp, that’s ok. Sprinkle with a little more sugar if it isn’t crunchy enough on the top for your liking. Let it cool in the tin before taking it out – it is quite delicate, and it will break apart if you take it out whilst it is still hot.
Oh, by the way… I fibbed about it only being a cake. The pudding name is quite right. It is also delicious hot with cream or ice cream as a REAL pudding.
I have been trying to find a bread pudding recipe for years but as my mother use to call it FOG ? It was dam near impossible until now, I’m sure she would of used Suet so I’m going to try that way first and see if it revives my memory as a child, wish id got her her to write the ingredients down. Will let you know how i go and if it brought back good memories
sorry I missed your comment, this is my old blog, I’ve moved over to a new site, hope you will follow me over there! http://greedypiglet.blogspot.co.uk/
And have you made the pudding yet? what did you think? Is it like your mum’s one?
Just like mum used to make yummo.
Soaking the bread in cold tea was delicious! I make one every week now. I am going to try soaking in other teas. Try it folks.
Hurray!! I like the oriental spiced teas for soaking fruit for fruit cakes, reckon that would work here too.
I followed this recipe and my first (and second) attempts came out perfectly. I love the fact that it’s cooked in a loaf tin, as I love the slightly crispy/crusty outside bits – which of course you get plenty of! It tasted delicious, thanks so much for this. By the way, has anyone tried soaking the bread in tea yet, and if so, was it nice? Thanks
Hi Corinne, I haven’t tried in tea, but I can’t see why not… I have soaked the fruit in tea and that is very nice. If you decide to try on the bread itself, do make sure the tea is stone cold, hot water makes the bread go all slimy when you are squeezing the water out.
There is another recipe I have seen, where you crumb the bread, add hot milk, and just mix it all up, not squeezed out at all, that might work with tea, but I’ve not tried that as I like this one so much!
Just to remind you that this site has now moved, so if you want to keep up to date with any new recipes, I’m over at http://greedypiglet.blogspot.co.uk/ now.
Been looking for this for a long time. Just like mother use to make. Thank you
soak white bread 1loaf squeeze out water after a while through siv put in big bowl add
1 & a half tbl sp of melted butter 5oz raisens&sultanas 1 big egg level tbl sp strawberry jam
soft brown sugar till you get the right sweetness you want and as much mixed spice as you want in it blending a bit at a time and tasting put in buttered square meat tin and cook very slow for about 145 fan 130 about 3 hours on middle shelf untill pudding looks as though its coming away from sides of tin
when you get it out sprinkle caster sugar over it let it cool a while then cut a corner piece out to try
(my french husband loves this ) my nan
taught me how to do this 60 yrs ago
Yes, that sounds almost exactly like mine, but gosh, I must say that 3 hours seems ever such a long time? Is it a really deep pudding?
The comment on tangy marmalade is a good one, I often put a big spoonful in recipes. Easy peasy to make when the Seville oranges come out in February. Use one of those big electric hand whisks now on the market. I love mine. It pulps the fruit, no hours of peeling and chopping just cut fruits into 4, scoop out pipes with a spoon and pop into your whisking vessel. Cooks easily and more quickly and voila, marmalade to die for.
I have been using my pressure cooker more and more for preserves, not only for marmalade but for apple jelly and such like. But I am not sure your whisk method of pulping the fruit would suit me, I do like to see nice shreds of peel in a clear jelly. I think your marmalade will taste glorious but might be rather less pretty. But I think I will give it a go in January when the Sevilles are in season again, and see what I think.
Hi again-again!
I thought you would have it already sorted!
While I only use the starter for cake I am
planning a sourdough loaf soon as I find the
time!!
Best regards..David.
Twitter: josordoni
replied:
If you are interested in my journey through sourdough, I blogged a lot of my experiments back in 2008 on another blog “Lynne’s Days”, hope you find them interesting! You really should give it a go, it is most satisfying.
Hi, David again!
Just a thought, have you ever come across Herman cake (sometimes called Friendship cake)?
It is really fun to make. Basically traditionally a friend gives you a sealed container containing
the starter that you feed (a bit like making ginger beer).
I can send you the method if you wish, and the method to make your own yeast based starter.
Regards David.
Twitter: josordoni
replied:
Yes I have, I make my own sourdough bread from time to time, so I have a white starter that I could use if I choose. would make a good fruit loaf I would think 😉
Josordoni´s last blog post ..A Flat Little Chicken..
Hi, I am a male but I LOVE cooking!
I have been making bread pud for years! Just like you I never make the pud by weight
always use what I can find around the kitchen.
Only one major difference though I use cold tea for the soak! Why not try it and see how
you get on!
Best regards, David.
Twitter: josordoni
replied:
Well firstly, no reason whatever to apologise for being male and loving cooking! And what a fabulous idea to soak the bread in cold tea.. I use tea a lot to soak sultanas and raisins for fruit cake but never thought of using it for bread pudding. I will certainly try it out next time. Thank you!
We always eat bread pudding cold with a squeeze of lemon juice over the sugar topping .yummy
Twitter: josordoni
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Gosh, that is unusual.. We eat it cold of course (lovely with a cup of tea) but never tried squeezing lemon juice over the top. I shall try it next time!
My mother used to make the best bread pudding in the world, my aunt was second best. Our local baker makes a pretty mean bread pudding that almost equals my mother and my aunt…but can I make it …NO! I have tried dozens of recipes and tried from memory but no luck. I over bought bread rolls at the weekend for a party and want to make a bread pudding with them and I have stumbled upon your recipe, the methods you use are exactly the same as my mother made it but she used to soak in milk and water and added suet. I am going to try it your way, I’l make two one in the bread maker and one in the AGA and let you know how it goes.
Twitter: josordoni
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Oh that sounds about right Jackie, my mum only used water, but did use suet, it was the one thing I didn’t like. It left a sort of fatty feeling in my mouth, so I experimented with adding butter instead, and found that it mixed in best when melted. I look forward to hearing how you get on, and if you think any tweaks would improve it.
Twitter: westhamroq
Hi, Like other people I have not had bread pudding like this since I was a child,It was a blast from the past. I was a chef and had a restaurant before I retired and wish I had had your recipe then ,I could have sold tons of it.Thanks very much ,it is important to keep traditional recipes going. By the way I put all the ingredients in a bread machine , switched it on to the “cake” programme, it worked to perfection.
Hello Lynne.
I tried your bread pudding recipe to the letter but it seems I might have overcooked it. The bottom came out black and the sultanas were black as well. I have a fan oven so I presume the 180 degrees you said in the recipe was too hot. I shall try again next week on a cooler oven and see what happens.
Twitter: josordoni
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Hi Virginia, what a shame 🙁 Did you try it with a lower temperature, I am not a professional recipe writer so I have only cooked this on my own gas cooker, I guess I should put a note somewhere that the electric temperatures are a direct translation (taken from Delia Smith!) of the Gas mark I use, and might need adjustment.
just made it. put in tub of glazed cherrys and a tsp of cinnamon, to double of your ingredients all got eaten in 3 days
Twitter: josordoni
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sounds yummy!! and yes, I agree, it doesn’t hang about… wait til the family insist you let all the bread get stale just so you can make bread pudding 🙂
Hi Terry Just making some myself and like you I found I had some glazed cherries in the cupboard and chopped a handful of them and added a tsp of nutmeg. Could be too much but we shall see. Next time will add cinnamon too. It’s in the oven now and half an hour more to go and its eating time! My first attempt at making my very own bread pudding which I simply gobble up when ever I can find some in fairs or cake shop.
Hi Beverley, Can’t wait to hear how it comes out!! Come and see me on the new Greedy Piglet site soon as well, all the new recipes will be over there now … http://greedypiglet.blogspot.co.uk/
Well I must say this was a success! Absolutely DELISH!!!!!! So easy to make too. The best yet. Never buying bread pudding again. Making my own and I make some every week for friends and family.
thank you!! I think it is the most enjoyed recipe here 🙂
Hooray! Bread pud as I remember it. Most recipes include milk which I’m sure I’ve never had.
There used to be a tiny shop in Strood that made bread pudding with stale stuff from the baker’s van. It often included stale cakes, finding a stray bit of Battenburg or that odd green’n’brown job was um, different. Anyway, thank you, yesterday’s breadmaker disaster is salvaged.
Twitter: josordoni
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I too have seen recipes that soak the bread in hot milk, but that sounds too much like a pudding rather than a cake – although this is called a pudding, I really think of it as a cake as I like to eat it cold with a cup of tea.
I haven’t had to add milk to this recipe, but I guess if you squeeze the bread really really hard you might need a spot more moisture, then milk would be what I would use.
And I have tried it with left over hot cross buns.. they went ever so slimey! best use for fruit bread isn’t in this, it is in a proper bread and butter pudding.
This is a message for FRANK – You will not be disappointed! It is fantastic and the texture is great. Make double the amount though, as 1 is definitely not enough LOL!
I have not had bread pudding or a tangy marmalade since i was a child i am 60 and looking forewed to trying it again. A really big thank you
Hi Lynne
I checked the fruit – it has a mix of Sultanas, currants, dried apricots, dried pineapple, raisins and cherries – NO PEEL (I’m not a fan either!) I’m disgusted with myself as there is none of it left today – it was THAT nice. I managed to let my partner and a friend have a couple of slices each but they had to fight me for ’em!!
At Christmas (I’m not a fan of christmas pud/cake) I think a few chopped nuts added, a bit more spice and a small splash of rum/brandy could make a suitable alternative to a heavy pud/cake.
Anyway, I may try your Delia Smith chocolate cakes next!!
I’ve just tried this and all I can say is WOW! I found 2 recipes for bread pudding and 2 of them seemed a bit odd (needing 4-5 loaves etc!!) This looked the most ‘Normal’.
I used Morrisons Luxury Dried Fruit Mix (which was only 10p or so dearer than the other basic fruit) as it also contained cherries and pineapple. Once the hour cooking time was up it still looked a little ‘wobbly’ for me so I covered the top in foil (it was nicely browned) and put it back for another 20 mins or so. Let it cool in the tin, then WOW.
This will defo become a family favourite!!
Thanks
Anita
Twitter: josordoni
replied:
Hi Anita! It’s really nice isn’t it! When you make it next time, hold your nerve and even if it is a bit wobbly, let it cool (you can always pop it back in if you really don’t like it). It will settle down and firm up as it cools.
The cherries and pineapple sound like really nice additions too. Only thing I don’t like in this is chopped peel – does the luxury dried fruit have any of that in it? I like the big whole caps of peel you can get Christmas time, and chop up yourself, they are much softer, but chopped peel is too tough for me.
That looks lovely!
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I don’t think I’ve EVER had bread pudding…
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Twitter: josordoni
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You should try it. I think you would like it, you can make it as sweet as you like, and add as much fruit as you like. Chopped apricots, prunes, dates, all good. If you like nuts, walnuts are good, and then you can add some maple syrup.
It is a blank(ish) canvas waiting your artistic touch!