The perfect bread pudding recipe

Perfect bread puddings are in the eye of the beholder. While there are many great bread pudding recipes available, the only way to achieve individual perfection is by experimenting with different cooking techniques and amount and types of additional ingredients you add to the mixture. A traditional English bread pudding is a tasty and interesting dessert to prepare and serve, so it is a worthwhile investment to strive for bread pudding perfection.

Preparation

10 minutes -Tear up 500g of white or wholemeal bread, depending on your tastes, into a mixing bowl. Conservative chefs preparing bread pudding for the first time are advised to use white bread. -Add 500g of dried fruits, which you can either dry out yourself or buy in a tin from a store. -Insert 85g of mixed fruit peel and 1 1/2 tablespoons of mixed spice.
As you cook and prepare more bread puddings, it is the types of dried fruits, peels and spices you add to your mixture that will help you to achieve bread pudding perfection, so you should think about adjusting quantities of fruits and spices. -Add 600ml of milk to your mixing bowl. Calorie conscious cooks should add a low percentage, such as skimmed, milk. -Manipulate the mixture in the bowl, by using your hands to tear and pull at the bread, aiming to reduce it to an almost paste-like substance. -In a separate bowl or measuring jug, beat two large eggs before adding them to the main mixing bowl along with 140g of light muscovado sugar and the zest of one lemon. -Stir the mixture thoroughly with a wooden spoon and leave it to rest for 15 minutes so that it can soak.

Cooking

-Heat an oven to 180C/160C fan while lining a 20cm non-stick square tin with butter or a light covering of oil. This means that your bread pudding will not stick inside the pan when it comes to serving time. -Pour the contents of the mixing bowl into the square tin and coat the surface with a generous sprinkle of demerara sugar. -Cook your bread pudding for 90 minutes or until it is golden brown (which ever occurs first). -If you notice that your pudding is cooking too quickly, remove it from the oven, cover over with tin foil, and return to the oven until the 90 minutes is up.
After 90 minutes, remove from the oven and turn the contents out onto wax paper. -Leave it to cool before cutting them into squares and serving your perfect bread pudding.