Bread and Butter Deliciousness

I have just started a new job as a bakery assistant at a fabulous Dutch bakery. It is simply brilliant. Quite apart from the fact that all the staff are all lovely, and every customer is pleased to see me, when I finished work yesterday, I got to take home a bag of date scones. Tasty though they are by themselves (they’re topped with cinnamony sugar!), I decided that if I left them for a day, they would make a delightful “scone and butter pudding.”

I only recently discovered that bread and butter pudding is essentially stale bread with custard. As a custard fiend, I was delighted and have been experimenting ever since. It’s a great pudding for students because an essential ingredient is stale bread – a standard in the uni cupboard.

I found some frozen berries in the freezer and everything fell into place. According to legend, bread and butter pudding tastes even better the next day. I compromised and made this one in the morning so it can develop its flavours during the day. The smell created by hot berries oozing into sugary, date scones combined with the Christmassy aroma of chai and star anise steeping in warm milk made for a rather pleasant kitchen. It’s pretty tempting to have some for lunch right now. 

This star anise reminded me of the tine a flatmate "accidentally" knocked a spider into the dinner I was cooking.

Mmm layers

Delicious layers

Ingredients

1 c fruit - I used frozen red currents 

Sugar to taste

1 c milk

Spices for flavour - I used a chai tea bag and a star anise, but you could also use ginger root, cinnamon quills, vanilla pods etc.

2 eggs - room temperature

4 Tbsp. brown sugar

3 date scones

Butter

Extra brown sugar

100 ml booze - I used walnut liqueur 

Stewed Fruit:

Heat fruit over low heat with a small amount of water. Add sugar to taste. 

Custard:

While fruit is stewing, place milk and spices over low heat and watch carefully, stirring frequently. Remove milk from heat as soon as it begins to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs and brown sugar until thick and creamy. Remove spices from milk. In small increments, add milk to egg and sugar while continuing to beat.

Assembly: 

Butter tin. Half scones horizontally* then cut into soldiers. Cover the bottom of tin with 1 1/2 scones, breaking soldiers with fingers into smaller pieces. Pour half of stewed fruit over scone pieces and press down with the back of a spoon to ensure even coverage. Pour half of custard. Crumble the soldiers of one scone on top. Pour in the last of the fruit and spread out with spoon. Pour in remaining custard. Rest for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 180° C. Place the soldiers from the last scone half in so they half stick out of the custard. Bake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with extra brown sugar and pour liqueur over top. Grill for 10-15 minutes. Leave it overnight, if you can resist!

* If using jam, smear liberally in both halves before cutting into soldiers.