In the immortal words of Snoopy, it was a dark and stormy night.
I’d made loaves of ricotta bread earlier in the day, and bread and butter pudding seemed like an ideal way to use the leftovers. The soft curd loaves have a fine, rich texture, slightly reminiscent of panettone. Having bought 30 free range eggs from the markets that afternoon, it was the perfect dessert for a dark and stormy night.
Google turned up an interesting Bill Granger recipe, which I, of course, had to mess around with. I reduced the quantity of eggs and cream, added apple brandy, eyeballed the other ingredients, and still ended up with the most delicious dessert we’ve had in ages. Here is my rough recipe – feel free to play around with it as your ingredients on hand necessitate.
- Golden syrup
- Ricotta bread (I used about ¾ of a loaf)
- Unsalted butter
- Dark raisins
- 5 large eggs
- 400ml milk (approx.)
- 250ml cream (approx.)
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
- generous dash of Calvados brandy
- 115g (½ cup) caster sugar
- Vanilla sugar
- Whipped cream to serve
1. Carefully cut the crust away from the outside of the loaf, and then cut it into thick slices. Butter one side of each slice and cut it in half on the diagonal.
2. Grease a pie dish and drizzle a generous amount of golden syrup all over the base. I actually had enough to fill a 26cm pie dish and a small rectangular dish (which I subsequently took to the neighbours). Arrange a layer of bread over the bottom of the dishes, butter side up. Scatter with raisins, then place another layer of butter-side-up bread over the top. You could keep going with layers, but I’d cut thick slices, so just two layers of bread was enough to fill my dishes.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, milk, vanilla , Calvados and sugar. Ladle the mixture over the top of the bread until the dishes are quite full and the bread is soaked. Leave for 30 minutes, pushing the bread down every 10 minutes or so to help it soak up the liquid. Preheat oven to 175C (160C with fan).
4. Sprinkle vanilla sugar over the bread, then bake in the oven for 45 – 55 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 – 15 minutes before serving with whipped cream.
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 