Bread And Butter Pudding - Cheap Recipe

Ingredients:

8 slices of bread, buttered
1/2  cup sultanas
3 level tablespoons caster sugar
Ground cinnamon
1 and 1/2 cups skimmed milk
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

Heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius.

Cut each slice of bread and butter into 4 triangles. Place 1/3 of the bread in the base of a lightly greased baking dish.  Sprinkle with half the sultanas, one tablespoon of sugar and a shake or two of cinnamon.  Place half of the remaining bread on top and then the remaining sultanas plus one tablespoon sugar and another shake or two of cinnamon.  Place the remaining bread and butter on the top, trying to ensure all the sultanas are covered by the bread.  Sprinkle the final tablespoon of caster sugar over the top.

In a separate bowl beat the eggs and skimmed milk together.  Carefully pour over the bread and fruit mix.  Sprinkle on a little more cinnamon. 

Let stand for half an hour.  Don't worry if the top pieces of bread are not submerged under the milk - these are going to be the nice crispy bits.

Bake at 160 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) until the "custard" has set and the pudding is golden brown on the top.  this will take about 40 minutes.

Serves 4 - 6 depending on how sweet your tooth is.

Notes:

If you want to be really healthy you can use whole meal bread instead of white bread.

I try to totally cover the sultanas with bread purely to protect them from over-cooking and going hard.

Food Facts:

Eggs are one of the most versatile forms of nourishment available.  Nutritionists recommend we eat a maximum of four eggs per week, although a study by the Harvard School of Public Health found that there is no significant link between eating eggs and developing cardiovascular disease in healthy individuals.  Most eggs sold today are infertile because there are no roosters housed with the laying hens There are no nutritional differences between fertile and infertile eggs.  Eggs contain all nine essential amino acids, making them a complete protein food. An egg shell has as many as 17,000 pores over its surface. It is said that a mother hen turns over her egg as many as 50 times per day. This is done so that the yolk doesn't stick to the inside of the shell. A fresh egg will sink in water, but a stale one won't.  White shelled eggs are produced by hens with white feathers and ear lobes. Brown shelled eggs are produced by hens with red feathers and red ear lobes.

Cinnamon comes from the inner bark of a small evergreen tree. As the bark dries out it curls into long quills.  The quills are then cut into cinnamon sticks or ground into cinnamon powder.  It is a very old spice and is suspected of being used back in 3000 BC in Egypt.  Cinnamon is a symbol of good luck in the Far East. Cinnamon implants a warm rich flavour to both desserts and to savoury recipes.