Currabinny Cooks: How to make the best bread and butter pudding

Plus delicious ways to use up stale bread

This simple dessert is a hit at any dinner party. Picture: Bríd O'Donovan

Fresh bread is a staple of most households.

I have been thinking about the seemingly unlimited types of bread in all their shapes, sizes, flavours and forms: challahs, bagels, tortillas, arepas, soda bread, chapati, sourdough, rye, rice bread, injera, bao, blaa and barmbrack. 

Almost all of these wonderful breads rely on being freshly made and consumed within a day or two. It is amazing really how much bread is made given how quickly it becomes stale. 

So, what do we do with bread that is past its most fresh? The most obvious solution is to freeze any bread that you think may not get eaten while it is still fresh. Defrosted bread of course has its limitations, I only really use it as toast. Stale bread itself is not without its possibilities. 

My dad usually puts it on the sea wall outside our house for the seagulls to fight over but I like the idea of getting a little creative and truly not wasting a single crumb.

Casse Croûte

recipe by:Currabinny Cooks

This is sort of a rough and tumble Croque Madame using a thick slice of leftover bread and some other bits and bobs. We have made this a few times now and it honestly tops making a real croque, mostly because you don’t have to go to the trouble of making

Servings

1

Cooking Time

 5 mins

Total Time

 5 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 1 thick slice of leftover bread

• 2-3 tbsp chicken stock or gravy

• Few thin slices of good ham

• Few thin slices of good quality cheddar, gruyere or other farmhouse cheese

• 50g butter

• 1 organic egg

• Sea salt

• Freshly cracked black pepper

Method

1. Head the butter in a small grill pan or frying pan so that it is bubbly and melty. Place the slice of bread on the hot buttery pan, toasting it on the bottom. Drizzle over a few tablespoons of gravy or stock to moisten the bread.

2. Place the slices of ham and then the cheese on top of the bread. Crack an egg on top season well with sea salt and black pepper and then place under a hot grill until the egg whites are cooked and the cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve.

Bread and butter pudding

recipe by:Currabinny Cooks

Some people like to be extra and use brioche or old bits of hot crossed buns, but I think that defeats the point. For this I used some leftover, white batch loaf. We both hate raisins so we used some good quality dark chocolate drops.

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 3 mins

Cooking Time

 30 mins

Total Time

 33 mins

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• Roughly 600g of white bread

• 60g butter

• 300ml double cream

• 300ml full-fat milk

• 1 vanilla pod, split

• 6 organic egg yolks

• 200g caster sugar

• 50g golden granulated sugar

• A good handful of dark chocolate drops (or raisins if you must)

Method

1. Butter a medium sized shallow baking dish. Cut the bread (if it isn’t already) into medium thick slices, cutting the crusts off. Butter each slice of bread generously. Arrange the bread in the buttered baking dish so that it is tightly packed in.

2. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk, cream and split vanilla pod over medium high heat.

3. Bring to the boil and then take off the heat, leaving it to stand for 10 minutes to infuse.

4. Whisk together the egg yolks and caster sugar and then pour in the hot cream and milk mixture, whisking the whole time.

5. Preheat the oven to 180C.

6. Sprinkle and tuck the chocolate drops in and amongst the slices of bread so that they are fairly evenly dispersed. Pour the custard all over so that all of the pieces of bread become moistened. Let the pudding stand for 15 minutes to let the custard soak in. Sit the dish in a larger baking dish and pour in some boiling water so that it comes halfway up the pudding dish.

7. Sprinkle the granulated sugar on top and place in the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes so that the top of the pudding is dark golden and crispy.

8. This is best eaten hot from the oven with good vanilla ice cream.

Panzanella

recipe by:Currabinny Cooks

This is the absolutely perfect recipe for leftover bread that is starting to go a little stale.

Servings

2

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 5 mins

Total Time

 15 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• A good chunk of leftover bread, cut or torn into large chunks

• Extra virgin olive oil

• Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper

• 500g cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered

• 1 large cucumber, deseeded and cut into chunks

• 1 large ball of good buffalo mozzarella, torn

• Handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly torn

• Small handful of parsley, roughly chopped

• 4-5 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced

• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Method

1. Toss the tomatoes and cucumber in a large mixing bowl. In a smaller bowl whisk together the red wine vinegar with 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and a good pinch of sea salt.

2. Drizzle this over the tomatoes and cucumber and crack some black pepper all over.

3. Heat a good slosh of olive oil in a small frying pan over a medium high heat and add the torn pieces of bread to the pan. Fry, turning the pieces of bread in the hot oil until the bread is golden and lightly crispy all over. Tip the tomatoes and cucumber mixture onto a serving bowl and tear the mozzarella over. Add the crispy torn bread and sprinkle over the basil, parsley and spring onion.