"bread pudding"

[mercia]

not "bread & butter pudding" - if you know what I mean

what do you think of this donated recipe? - I've looked online for bread pudding recipes and none of them mention suet

225g white bread pref. stale
300ml milk
100g currants, sultanas, or raisins
50g mixed peel
50g shredded suet
50g demerara sugar
5-10ml mixed spice
1 egg beaten
a little milk to mix

Butter a one and a half pint dish.
Remove crusts from bread and break into small pieces. Pour milk over it and leave to soak for half an hour, then beat out the lumps.
Add the fruit, peel, suet, sugar and spice and mix well.
Add the egg, with a little extra milk if needed to make mixture a dropping consistency.
Pour into dish, and bake at 180 degrees C for about 1 and a half to 2 hours.
Dredge with sugar before serving.
Mixed peel can be replaced with 50g dried fruit if preferred.

[Paul Sherratt]

" beat out the lumps " sounds a little extreme !

[salymap]

I think I would use two eggs and no suet. They hardly ever fail with me if there is plenty of fruit of various kinds.

[Don Petter]

It looks like a sort of recipe, but perhaps over-complicated?

Here is the tried and tested Petter version:

1lb bread (preferably stale)
12oz sultanas or other dried fruit
6oz margarine
4oz sugar
1 tablespoon milk (only needed if mixture seems too dry)
1 or 2 eggs
several teaspoons of mixed spice, to taste

Cut bread into thick (1"+) slices
Soak bread in cold water, overnight if stale and dry, can be less if bread is not so old*

Squeeze out as much water as possible, by hand.
Break up bread and mix roughly, by hand.**
Add dry ingredients and stir gently to disperse with wooden spoon.
Add melted margarine and egg, and stir again to mix.

Put mixture into greased open-topped baking dish.

Cook for one hour at 400F (200C).

Serve hot, then later cold with dusting of caster sugar.



* If you can't wait overnight, you can use hot water from the kettle, but this is not considered the true way.


** On no account use a food mixer to break up the bread. I tried it once and the result was a pudding so homogenous that it looked, and tasted, like a grey brick.

[mercia]

many thanks

so suet not essential - mother (of course) used to make it, I don't think we ever ate it hot

promised to make it for a visiting relative

[Paul Sherratt]

Tip.


If you want to turn it in to a New Orleans dish, simply add whisky.


Some things you never ever forget ...

[mercia]

simply add whisky.

one online recipe I saw suggested adding brandy
unfortunately I can't afford either

[salymap]

I'd rather have the drink in a glass for the end of the meal. To me it would spoil the childlike comfort from that sort of nursery food.

[Anna]

My grandmother used to make it, but always added zest of a lemon which she said was essential. If no lemon was to hand she used zest of an orange. Nearest I can find to her recipe is below, similar to Don's but bread soaked in milk plus more fruit and dried peel and using butter, not marge. Have never heard of suet being included (or was it a wartime addition due to rationing of butter?)

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

[Don Petter]

My grandmother used to make it, but always added zest of a lemon which she said was essential. If no lemon was to hand she used zest of an orange. Nearest I can find to her recipe is below, similar to Don's but bread soaked in milk plus more fruit and dried peel and using butter, not marge. Have never heard of suet being included (or was it a wartime addition due to rationing of butter?)
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/13355/bread-pudding

Wow! Even more fruit (equal to weight of bread). I thought mine was well-endowed, but I'm all for as much as possible. I think butter or margarine are pretty much interchangeable in my recipe.

(One thought. Is the use of butter and milk in danger of encroaching on Bread and Butter Pudding? I presume and hope not.)

[salymap]

Wow! Even more fruit (equal to weight of bread). I thought mine was well-endowed, but I'm all for as much as possible. I think butter or margarine are pretty much interchangeable in my recipe.

(One thought. Is the use of butter and milk in danger of encroaching on Bread and Butter Pudding? I presume and hope not.)

I have been known to make Bread and Butter pudding and forget it was in a slow oven. It was okay, it turned into a delicious 'bread pudding' with a little extra fruit added.

[vinteuil]

My grandmother used to make it, but always added zest of a lemon which she said was essential. If no lemon was to hand she used zest of an orange. Nearest I can find to her recipe is below, similar to Don's but bread soaked in milk plus more fruit and dried peel and using butter, not marge. Have never heard of suet being included (or was it a wartime addition due to rationing of butter?)

My ma was a really excellent cook. Me and my brothers, we loved her bread-and-butter pudding. From time to time she produced a bread-pudding. We were much less enthusiastic. Her recipe very much as Anna recalls: certainly zest of lemon (or orange); certainly butter and not marge; certainly plenty of dried fruit; definitely no suet.

But - in the end - quite a lot of faff for, ultimately, a rather boring pud...

[mercia]

do I detect a lot of sneering at my suet

is it not the basis of any sponge pudding, steak & kidney pudding, dumpling, spotted dick, christmas pudding ?

[salymap]

do I detect a lot of sneering at my suet

is it not the basis of any sponge pudding, steak & kidney pudding, dumpling, spotted dick, christmas pudding ?

All the others but it's not in my sponge pudding

[mercia]

have I committed a faux pas ?

here's a sponge pudding with suet in it

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/3824/steamed-orange-and-banana-sponge.aspx