Bread Pudding

What do you do when you have just been on a three day bread course, your freezer is bulging and you have enough bread to feed an army? Well you could try a bread pudding.

People often ask me about quantities, and with a few exceptions they generally don’t matter too much. Most recipes are guidelines as far as I am concerned, and as long as it’s fairly edible that’s good enough for me. In the words of a cook I once sailed with, “If it comes out different, call it something else”.  And if all else fails, get yourself a Labrador!  

Also on the list today, my Elderflower Champagne needs bottling, and my Rhubarb wine has stopped fermenting and so can be racked, to remove the dead yeasts, stir things up a bit and get fermentation started again.

So first, Alcohol production, and my third batch of Elderflower Champagne has been gently fermenting (or working, as Grandmother Wynn used to say) for about ten days and so needs bottling, in about a fortnight it will be ready to drink.

As I said before, I use old plastic water bottles, but it’s still important that you release the pressure every couple of days to reduce the chance of a cap blowing off and the resultant spillage.

Strained and ready to Bottle

Drinkable in 10 days

Next the Rhubarb is siphoned into a clean container, topped up with water and returned to a warm place with the airlock in place.





Syphoning

Dead Yeast

Ready to Return to a warm place

Half an hour later it was bubbling away again.

Now the bread pudding, I decided to use the rest of the wholemeal bread and a half baguette, a layer of buttered pieces of each, sprinkled with dried fruit.

 A milk, egg and sugar mixture is made up and poured in, now you can just leave it for a few hours so the bread and fruit can soak up the liquid.

It then needs cooking till it’s all set and crisp on top. Mine took about 50 minutes at 160 degrees (Fan)

Ready to Eat

 If you are feeling adventurous, you can spread the bread with butter AND  add marmalade, or jam.

I’m back to work on Monday, but for my next set of days off I intend to make some Red Grapefruit Marmalade, and maybe Onion Relish, ready for Barbeque season. If it ever stops raining.