CHOC BREAD PUDDING RECIPES

Steps:

• 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Lightly grease a 28cm loose-bottomed tart tin.
  2. Bash 2 tablespoons of demerara sugar in a pestle and mortar until fine, then mix with the remaining demerara so you have a range of textures. Tip into the tart tin and shake around to coat. Tap gently, then tip any excess back into the mortar for later.
  3. Slice the edges off the panettone in strips and use them to line the base and sides of the tart tin, pressing down hard to compact and create a pastry-like shell.
  4. Halve the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds, then put both the seeds and pod into a pan on a medium heat along with the cream, milk and butter, and simmer for 5 minutes or until the butter has melted.
  5. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk the eggs and golden caster sugar for 2 minutes, or until smooth. Whisking constantly, add the hot cream mixture to the bowl until combined, then discard the vanilla pod.
  6. Now it’s time to build this crazy comfort pudding. Pour one-third of the custard into the base of the tart and leave to soak in for a couple of minutes.
  7. Tear up all the remaining panettone into rough chunks, soak them in the bowl of creamy custard for a minute or two (the more it sucks up, the better!), then layer up in the shell you’ve created, snapping up and adding little chunks of chocolate and dollops of marmalade between the layers – there’s no need to be neat about it, you want a range of heights, saturation and textures.
  8. Pour over any leftover custard, leaving it to soak in if necessary, then sprinkle with the remaining demerara sugar.
  9. Bake for around 25 minutes, or until set. Allow the pudding to rest for 10 minutes, then serve with cream, custard or ice cream, if you like – it’s delicious cold, too, if you’ve got any leftovers!

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C/gas 4. To make the custard, heat the milk, cream and vanilla pod with its scraped out seeds (if using) together in a saucepan to just below boiling point. Meanwhile whisk the eggs and yolk with the caster sugar in a jug. Slowly pour the warm milk mixture, including the vanilla pod, over the eggs, stirring constantly until smooth. Stir in the vanilla extract now if using.
• Lightly butter an ovenproof dish approximately 20cm x 25cm x 5cm. Cut the crusts from the bread slices, then butter both sides of the bread and cut into triangles. 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.
• Remove the vanilla pod from the custard then pour the custard over the pudding. Leave to soak for at least 30 mins, or longer in the fridge, if you like. Sprinkle over the demerara and bake for 35-40 mins until golden brown and puffed up.