The secret to this boozy bread and butter pudding is all about getting soaked. No, not in the getting drunk sort of way!
You need to soak the currants for a few hours or even overnight in the alcohol. Melt the butter in the microwave for a few seconds before spreading it on the bread with a pastry brush so that it soaks in. Allow the bread to soak up the custard liquid for half an hour before putting the dish in the oven – ‘soaked’ in a bain-marie.
I like using slices from a stale Warbies Toastie loaf. If you want to be fancy you can substitute the bread for panettone, brioche, challah, hot cross buns if it’s Easter time or stollen if it’s Christmas.
The boozy bread and butter pudding result was a delicious, warming, comforting pudding – perfect for the chilly autumn and winter months.
Boozy bread and butter pudding
Ingredients
- 100 ml/3½fl oz Baileys or rum, whiskey or Tia Maria... whichever you have to hand
- 8 slices bread
- 60 g/2oz butter
- 60 g/2oz currants
- 275 ml/10fl oz milk
- 60 ml/2½fl oz double cream
- 50 g/2oz caster sugar I used home-made vanilla sugar
- grated zest of ½ small lemon
- 3 eggs
- freshly grated nutmeg
Instructions
- Soak the currants in the alcohol for a couple of hours (or overnight if you're forward planning!)
- Grease a 1 litre/2 pint rectangular Pyrex glass or enamel baking dish
- Butter the bread and cut each slice of buttered bread into quarters leaving the crusts on
- Arrange one layer of buttered bread over the base of the baking dish, sprinkle half the currants and liquor over, then cover with another layer of the bread slices and the remainder of the currants and liquor
- In a measuring jug, measure out the milk and add the double cream
- Stir in the caster sugar and lemon zest, then whisk the eggs, first on their own in a small measuring jug and then into the milk mixture. Stir to combine
- Pour the liquid over the bread before sprinkling over some freshly grated nutmeg
- Leave for about an hour, allowing the bread to soak up the liquid
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4
- Put the dish on a bain-marie
- Bake for 30-40 minutes
- Serve warm with pouring cream, ice cream or custard
