[NoHo Arts District, CA] – This month’s Simple and Delicious Home Cooking blog is all about “Bread and Butter Pudding.”
Encouraging someone to fall in love with you? Rewarding those who already are? I guarantee that if you feed them bread and butter pudding they will be unable to resist you.
This simple but effective desert has an almost magical effect on those who devour it. Young or old, friend or foe. it’s something about the heavenly texture, the eggy comfort of it. The heady sweetness and the crunchy tips. It’s warmly familiar, after all, it is just bread and butter and eggs and milk and sugar. Nothing exotic. But the way it is prepared, in your hands, leisurely buttering, sprinkling and patting the dark brown sugar and beating the eggs into the milk for just enough time to mix, then pouring it all over the languishing layers of buttery heavily sugared bread slices. It’s very erotic to make and maybe that why it’s such a game changer.
Am I waxing a bit too lyrical I hear you ask me? Absolutely not. For when you take your first mouthful of bread and butter pudding you will understand and thank me… for the rest of your life.
Below are the ingredients for one large bread and butter pudding . I have tired to be moderate with size in the past, but it usually comes to blows on who gets the extra helping. So I’ve given up and now usually make enough for an army.
You will need one large dish. Lasagna dishes work well.
Ingredients
- I large sliced white bread – I like the Trader Joes Organic White
- 1 – 2 sticks of salted butter
- 2 cups soft brown sugar
- 4-5 eggs, depending on their size
- 3- 4 cups whole milk
Sprinkle a generous amount of sugar on the bottom of the dish. Soften the butter, so it’s easier to spread, and generously butter both sides of each slice of bread, dip the bread into the sugar, making sure you pat lots of it onto each side, then stack the bread leaning up against each other in the dish. Fill up the dish!
Next, mix the milk and the eggs gently. You don’t need to beat this to death, just mix it throughly. Then pour the custard mixture over the bread trying to get it all over. There will be a lot of this golden eggy custard pooling in the bottom of the dish, this is what you want. Then leave it for more than ten minutes at least so the bread can absorb the custard, which it does very well. If I have a bit of butter left I spread it on the tips of the bread and sprinkle a little more sugar…yum. You could at this stage set it aside while you make dinner. I wouldn’t put it in the fridge though, because it solidifies and doesn’t cook the same way…I have tried this.
Once it’s ready to go in the pre-heated oven set at 350 for about 25-35 minutes depending on how hot your oven is and the depth of your dish.
It’s ready when the tips of the bread are lightly golden and the custardy bits are solid. You can overcook this, but like French toast, some like it done more than others. I like mine just done. That way the eggy bits are silky and delicious and the tops crunchy.
Once done take it out and serve it right away. Scoop out your servings to rapturous applause.
I like it just as it is…naked. But I do sometimes serve it with fresh berries. My son insists on good vanilla ice cream. Either way, it will vanish pretty quickly and be prepared to fight over the dish scrapings. Enjoy!
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