"They ate a lot of bread pudding under Mrs Rundle's regime ... Melanie grew to fear the bread pudding. She was afraid that if she ate too much of it she would grow fat and nobody would love her and she would die a virgin ... bloated as a drowned corpse".
(The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter, p.3)
It's such a great quote that I couldn't resist creating a bread pudding that would surely terrify both Melanie and Mrs Rundle. Sadly I missed World Nutella Day on Feb 5th but as it's still the correct month, lets call this a belated celebration of the hazelnut spread. The final recipe is still to come.
Black Forest Bread Pudding
Ingredients:
4 slices day-old bread, any kind
Nutella
1-2 dozen cherries, fresh or frozen
For the custard
250ml double cream
250ml milk
175ml sugar
4 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
2 tbsp Kirsch or 85ml cherry pie filling (both optional)
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180*. Lightly grease a small baking dish (mine is 14x19cm) and set aside.
In a saucepan combine cream and milk over medium heat and bring to a boil. In a blender pulse together sugar, egg yolks, whole eggs and cherry pie filling and/or Kirsch (if using) until smooth. When the cream and milk have come to the boil add gradually to the egg mixture pulsing in between to combine.
Pour the rest of the custard back into the warm saucepan and cook stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or spatula until slightly shiny and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
Cover your small baking dish with tin foil and place inside a larger one (or in a roasting tin) and pour in enough boiling water to come part way up the side of the dish. Bake covered for 30min then uncovered for 5-10min until top has crisped up.
Custard modified from cookbook: The 150 Best Slow Cooker Recipes by Judith Findlayson.
