Mine and Regan’s Bread and Butter Pudding is very much a leftovers dish. Well, to be honest as long as you don’t tell Lisa (the wife), it’s technically a purposeful leftovers dish.

Every time we make bread, which is at least twice a week and because our bread only contains Flour, Water, Yeast and Salt, and therefore it is best consumed the same day as making, we always have a piece left the equivalent of two, maybe three slices. Let me add, that sometimes, probably mostly, greed takes over and there is no bread left!

On those days we are not overly greedy, we always put the small piece left at the end of the day, in to the freezer, which means every few weeks we get to make something with the leftovers. Every couple of months it is our homemade Bread and Butter Pudding that gets made. The rest of the time, we use the leftover bread to make breadcrumbs… breadcrumbs for our sausages perhaps, or maybe to coat our chicken kiev or my favourite sprinkled on the Sunday’s cauliflower cheese!

This is our Bread and Butter Pudding recipe:

Ingredients: The equivalent of 5 slices of bread; 25g slightly salted butter, softened for buttering the bread plus extra for greasing the dish; 125ml of full fat milk; 150ml of double cream; 50g of sultanas or currants (or both); 2 whole eggs and 1 egg yolk; 2 tablespoons of caster sugar for the ‘custard’ and 1 tablespoon of demerara sugar for the top; 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence or 1 vanilla pod, halved and seeds scraped out; zest of half a lemon.

Method: Lightly butter an ovenproof dish we use one 22cm x 17cm x 6cm. Cut the crusts from the bread and then butter both sides of the bread and cut into similar sizes. I slice the bread with the very sharp bread knife and Regan cuts the crusts off with a less sharp knife.

If you’re using bread that is similar sizes it is easier, ours is a bit more ad-hoc as we are using some bread from a tin loaf, and some from a boule type loaf.  Lay half of the bread slices in the bottom of the dish so that they are slightly overlapping. Mix the dried fruit with the lemon zest and sprinkle half of the mix over the bread. Layer the rest of the bread on top then sprinkle over the remaining fruit.

To make the custard, heat the milk, cream together in a saucepan to just below boiling point. Whisk the eggs and yolk with the caster sugar in a jug. Slowly pour the warm milk mixture over the eggs, stirring constantly. Stir in the vanilla extract now if using.

Pour the custard over the bread and leave to soak for at least 30 mins, or longer in the fridge, if you like. Sprinkle over the demerara sugar just before putting in to the oven preheated to 180C/160C for 35-40 mins or until golden brown.

Serve on it’s own or with single cream, or maybe hot custard (my favourite).