Bread and Butter Pudding

Last night I surveyed my collection of dried up baguettes. Anyone who knows French baguettes knows that after 24 hours they become so hard that it takes 10 strong men to break one in half. I've tried grinding them to crumbs to make stuffing, but the Magimix was strained to the limit and the results uneven. I decided to resurrect Bread and Butter pudding - I think this may have been an inspired thought. After a quick trawl on the internet I had enough information to make up the following recipe.

First soak baguette bits in water for 5 hours
Slice in half longways and place in baking dish
Squeeze out the really soaking bits like a sponge and squish into gaps
Lob butter peelings on top
Throw in a couple of handfulls of raisins
Sprinkle with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg and half tsp ginger
Cover with about 5 dessertspoons of brown sugar
Beat 2 eggs into some milk with pinch of salt and pour on
Keep pouring more milk until bread covered
Cook in oven at 180 about half an hour until fluffed up and top a bit brown and crispy

DELICIOUS! You can use up any stale bread like this, British bread can be buttered and layered. It has the texture of a soufflé. Your guests will never know.

I also tried out my mother in law's recipe for quick pastry. This recipe has less fat, less saturated fat, and is much easier to make than the 'rubbing in' method: win win win situation.

Take a small glass, half fill with oil, and the other half with water. Marvel at how the oil rises to the top, add a pinch of salt. Pour into mixing bowl and add enough flour to form a pasty ball, adding more water or oil if or both if you overdo it - and then more flour if you overdo that.

When satisfied that you can pick up the ball and plop it on the table without incident, roll out (you can use a wine bottle if you don't have a rolling pin, full or empty, but not half empty with a loose fitting cork) and use for pizza bases or quiches.

I think next time I would cook it for 10 minutes before adding filling to crisp it up a bit. I used some chick pea flour mixed in for added nutrition. Then slices of cooked red onion sweet as sugar, tomato paste (I condense my own as I can't buy organic tomato concentrate here) slices of mozzarella and grated emmental. Also delicious! Pizzas and quiches can also use up sad leftover lumps of goats cheese, or any soft cheese, simply cover in tomato sauce and sprinkle liberally with grated cheese, delicious.

The pictures of the mostly eaten remains go to show that a woman's work is quickly eaten - or else hangs about in the fridge until it goes mouldy because no-one wants to eat it.