Delicious bread and butter pudding

Okay, so puddings aren't for every day, but when it's cold and wintery outside, there's nothing better than a rich, warming bowl of creamy bread and butter pudding. If you need an excuse, bread and butter pudding is excellent for using up slightly stale bread and is very nutritious too.

You can use up anything remotely 'bready' for this recipe - old croissants work really well, but plain old white sliced is fine too. If your crusts are quite soft, don't worry about removing them, but if you're using old doorsteps, it's best to cut them off.

Ingredients

6-8 thick slices of bread

50g butter

50g sultanas

50g caster sugar

2 eggs

600ml milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees/gas 3.

Grab a willing child (or two) and set them to work buttering the bread. It doesn't have to be exact but make sure that they butter right up to the edges.  For a delicious orangey version, you can add a layer of marmalade too.

Take over just for a minute to cut the slices in half diagonally with a sharp knife.

Now use the remaining butter to grease an ovenproof dish, then layer half the bread, butter side up, in the dish then sprinkle over half the sugar and half the sultanas. 

Add the remaining slices in another layer and sprinkle on the remaining sugar and sultanas.

Beat the eggs, milk and vanilla together, then pour gently over the bread (it's best to strain it as you don't want little pieces of unbeaten egg spoiling your pudding).

Now set the pudding aside for half an hour so that the bread absorbs some of the liquid.

Finally, bake for about 45 minutes until the top is crisp and golden and the middle is gently set.

If you're feeling experimental, you can try using coconut milk, or for a luxurious version, use half double cream and half milk.  Don't worry, I won't tell!