Michelle Darmody: Sweet and warm old-fashioned puddings
There is something nice about regressing to old-fashioned puddings, sweet and warm once the cold days set it.
As the grey skies mist over and evening falls earlier, fires are lit, and comfort and hibernation are on most people’s minds. These rib-sticking desserts will certainly provide comfort on a cold day.
The first written recipe for bread and butter pudding dates back to 1728 and on researching it I was amazed to see how little the base recipe has changed in all these years.
As well as tasting good it is a very useful dish, as it makes the best of stale bread. I have attached a recipe that includes berries. I always have bags of frozen berries in the freezer, as they are frozen while fresh which makes them much tastier than berries imported out of season.
You can substitute the berries with many different things, the recipe is extremely adaptable. I like to add golden raisins and orange zest or chocolate chips also work very well.
You can experiment with the type of bread you use panettone and brioche both work well but as they are quite sweet I would add some citrus zest to the recipe. It will offset some of the sugar.
Dates and treacle make up the base for the second pudding. If you find it too much with the sauce poured over you can omit it and eat slices of the cake as is.
The lemon pudding is slightly lighter in nature to the others and is excellent served a little warm just after baking or cold the next day. A bain-marie, or water bath, is used while making it.
This allows steam to circulate in the oven while the pudding is cooking and helps give a far more succulent result.
Keep an eye on the water and top it up if necessary. There should always be enough water to come at least a third of the way up the pudding dish.
Bread and butter pudding with berries
30g of soft butter
8 thick slices of day old bread,
crusts removed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
20g of golden caster sugar
360 mls of milk
50 mls of cream
1 tsp of ground nutmeg
1 tsp of ground cinnamon
2 tsp of vanilla essence
60g of fresh or frozen berries
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and butter a medium sized oven proof dish with a little of the butter.
Spread the rest of the butter onto the slices of bread.
Layer the slices of bread with the berries.
Whisk the eggs with three-quarters of the sugar until it begins to turn a paler colour. Warm the milk in a heavy based saucepan and add the cream, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla.
Remove when it is shivering before it boils.
Add this slowly and gently to the eggs and sugar whisking all of the time. If lumps appear you can strain the mixture.
Pour this over the bread and berries and sprinkle the rest of the sugar on top.
Set aside for about 20 minutes so the bread can soak up the liquid.
Bake for a half an hour until golden on top and the custard is set.
Serve with more defrosted berries.
Treacle and date pudding with toffee sauce
225g of Medjool dates, destoned and roughly chopped
170 mls of hot water
1 tsp of bread soda
170g of self-raising flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
85g of soft butter
100g of light muscovado sugar
3 tbs of treacle
100mls of milk
90g of golden caster sugar
20g of soft butter
280 mls of cream, at room temperature
2 pinches of sea salt
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line an 8 x 10 inch tin.
Place the dates and water in a saucepan and simmer gently for five minutes and then set aside.
Beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs slowly then add the treacle until combined.
Sieve the bread soda and flour together. Fold a third of it into the mixture and then a third of the milk. Repeat until everything is combined.
Stir in the date and water mixture. Scoop the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 25 minutes until it is firm to touch. Allow cooling in the tin.
To make the sauce dissolve the sugar in 3 tbs of warm water in a heavy base saucepan over a low heat.
Allow to come to the boil but do not stir it. When the mixture is darkening whisk in the butter. Take the saucepan off the heat and whisk in the cream.
Pour half of the sauce over the pudding when it is still warm and pour the other half over as you serve it.
Lemon pudding
180g of caster sugar
50g of butter and extra for buttering the oven dish
the zest of three lemons and 100 mls of lemon juice
3 eggs, separated
50g of plain flour
300 mls of milk
icing sugar for dusting
Preheat your oven to 170 degrees and butter a medium size ovenproof dish.
Beat the sugar, butter and zest until light and fluffy. Slowly add in the lemon juice, egg yolks, flour and milk until smooth.
Whisk the egg whites until doubled in volume. Fold in the lemon mix. Scoop the mixture into the ovenproof dish, the mixture will not look completely smooth.
To steam the pudding, add water to a tin larger than your oven dish and place the dish into it. The water should rise halfway up the ovenproof dish. Bake for 35 minutes until the top is set. Dust with icing sugar.
