The mother of all essential desserts

[amateur51]

Am51, this looks delicious! No, I've never seen this but might try it out seeing as we have plenty of leftover bread in our household. Over here, this would be considered a bread pudding (pudding here means just that, it's not a generic term for dessert.) Bread puddings are dead easy and quite good, though the calorie count can be quite high. One of my favorites comes from a little cookbook found in a charity shop for fifty cents. It's Clement Freud's "Bread and Butter Pudding" in the "Aldeburgh Celebration Cookbook" published in 1997 by the WI in Aldeburgh to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Aldeburgh Festival.

Oh marthe how wonderful to summon up the memory of Clement Freud, who was a restaurateur, a gourmet chef, an MP, a humourist, a follower of the Turf ... and he advertised dog food

The combination of Clement Freud and the WI must be irresistible

[Serial_Apologist]

Oh marthe how wonderful to summon up the memory of Clement Freud, who was a restaurateur, a gourmet chef, an MP, a humourist, a follower of the Turf ... and he advertised dog food

...and a grandson of the famous Sigmund?

[amateur51]

And, if you sandwich the panetonne with some good marmalade that adds a nice zinginess to it! <drool emoticon>
As to damsons, a friend gives me some every year from his orchard, I love them but I can also get them from our greengrocer.

I was taught to use a good, i.e., not too sweet apricot jam but a zingy marmalade would work jolly well too I'm sure, Anna

I love damsons, stewed, in jam (mind those stones) on toasted crumpets with butter, and in damson gin/vodka

[Nick Armstrong]

...and a grandson of the famous Sigmund?

Not to mention estranged brother of the artistic Lucian

[Serial_Apologist]

Not to mention estranged brother of the artistic Lucian

Oh yes - he would have made Lucian a good subject, one suspects.

[Nick Armstrong]

Oh yes - he would have made Lucian a good subject, one suspects.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2213127/Sir-Clement-Freud-and-brother-Lucian-Freud-in-feud-as-latter-rejects-knighthood.html

Sad.

[Anna]

I love damsons, stewed, in jam (mind those stones) on toasted crumpets with butter, and in damson gin/vodka

There was a programme, last year, British Food or sometlhing like that, might have had Michel Roux fronting it - dreadful scandal of UK orchards being lost, plum varities extinct, damsons, etc., because supermarkets import so much soft fruit from Poland and Estonia (nothing against Poles, etc.) but - why? Why do people not know what a damson is, why are our native apples struggling - our greengrocer has an apple festival every year and last year I had some which I'd never heard of, species dating from around 18th century, now only grown by specialist orchards, and lovely they were too, like a russet (to keep on topic, russets are wonderful with cheese and walnuts) can't remember the name now but an endangered species. No variety now in supermarkets, bland, uniform size, uniform taste. Have made sloe gin, damson gin might be worth a go.

[Serial_Apologist]

There was a programme, last year, British Food or sometlhing like that, might have had Michel Roux fronting it - dreadful scandal of UK orchards being lost, plum varities extinct, damsons, etc., because supermarkets import so much soft fruit from Poland and Estonia (nothing against Poles, etc.) but - why? Why do people not know what a damson is, why are our native apples struggling - our greengrocer has an apple festival every year and last year I had some which I'd never heard of, species dating from around 18th century, now only grown by specialist orchards, and lovely they were too, like a russet (to keep on topic, russets are wonderful with cheese and walnuts) can't remember the name now but an endangered species. No variety now in supermarkets, bland, uniform size, uniform taste. Have made sloe gin, damson gin might be worth a go.

Most of these items have become niche, and thereby expensive/hard to find. With the grubbing of the orchards went probably hundreds of associated insect species, and the birds that fed on them - all part of the general eco decline.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

and the walnut trees that were a feature of the middle kingdom once ...

[Anna]

and the walnut trees that were a feature of the middle kingdom once ...

But you can still buy from the greengrocer those wonderful 'wet' walnuts plus cob nuts when they come around, all is not lost. If people keep buying the produce they will keep producing.

[subcontrabass]

Bread puddings are dead easy and quite good,

This is a bread pudding, which should not be confused with a bread and butter pudding.

[amateur51]

This is a bread pudding, which should not be confused with a bread and butter pudding.

Oh calamity

This link doesn't work for me, scb

[Anna]

Oh calamity
This link doesn't work for me, scb

Nor for me, but bread pudding - well my Nan used to make it, heavy on the lemon and orange zest, delicious but weighty. In fact it's not a dessert, any more than lardy cake is! Has anyone had that? Probably around 5,000 cals per portion! But we're getting off topic. Anyone fancy a Belgian Bun? Or, even, a Chelsea one?

[vinteuil]

Oh calamity

This link doesn't work for me, scb

...perhaps -

http://bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/13355/bread-pudding

[amateur51]

...perhaps -

http://bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/13355/bread-pudding

Surely scb wouldn't concern himself with a common-or-garden receipt, vints