Nigella’s So-Wrong-It’s-Right Bread-and-Butter Pudding

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Nigella Traditional

4 serving

5.0 1 ratings Review this recipe

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 40 mins

Serves: 4

“I do know the rules that govern a bread-and-butter pudding, but this obeys none of them – and unrepentantly. This is the bread-and-butter pudding of my early childhood, the one I ate at my granny’s: soft, squidgy, and straightaway! So here the bread is white sliced, and used straight out of the pack, though if you do have stale bread, of course use that; the custard requires no cream; the steeping lasts no more than 10 minutes; and – stay with me here – the bread is sandwiched not with butter but triangles of Laughing Cow. When I was a child, Laughing Cow – which then went only by its French name, La Vache Qui Rit – was the treatiest of treats. I do concede, however, that these sandwiches don’t sound as if they belong in a bread-and-butter pudding, but I promise you that any doubts you have will be dispelled by the first melting mouthful, giving just the mildest hint of cheesecakey softness at its centre.”

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients

6 slices medium sliced soft white bread from an 800g loaf
6 triangles Laughing Cow original spread
50g caster sugar, plus 1 tsp
1 small unwaxed lemon, zest finely grated
30g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
4 large eggs (not fridge-cold)
2½ tsp vanilla extract
500ml whole organic milk (not fridge-cold)
2½ tsp demerara sugar
4 tsp golden syrup, to serve (optional)

Method

Step 1

Spread each slice of bread with a Laughing Cow triangle. Taking 1 tsp caster sugar, sprinkle lightly over 3 of the spread slices (in other words, using a third of tsp per slice) and then divide the lemon zest between those same 3 pieces of bread, scattering it over each sugar-sprinkled slice.

Step 2

Top these slices with the ones that have just Laughing Cow on them, and spread the soft butter on top of each sandwich, using a little extra butter to grease an oval baking dish (mine is 28 cm at its longest point, with a capacity of approx. 1½ litres, but you could go a little smaller). Cut each sandwich into 4 triangles and arrange them in the buttered dish. I tend to go for a slightly higgledy piggledy approach, placing some sandwiches with crusts down, some with the crusts up, but it’s really just a matter of choice (and temperament).

Step 3

Crack the 4 eggs into a wide measuring jug, add the vanilla and 50g sugar and whisk together by hand to combine and aerate. Now, whisking more gently, pour in the milk, and when it’s all combined pour over the sandwiches in their dish.

Step 4

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160º fan/gas 4 and leave the pudding to steep for the 10 mins or so it takes the oven to get to temperature, spooning the custard over the slices every now and again as you wait.

Step 5

Sprinkle the demerara sugar over the top and bake in the oven for 35-40 mins, by which time the custard will be just set and puffed up, and the top a pale gold.