Bread pudding

After the barbecue on Saturday, we were left with two whole baguettes, which went stale. I used half of one to make giant croutons to go with dinner last night (half-inch slices spread thinly with garlic butter and baked for about 10 minutes); but what to do with the rest of the bread? I didn't feel comfortable with the idea of throwing out so much food. 

I'm going to make bread pudding, which I love, but haven't actually made for about 30 years. Everyone who makes it seems to have a different recipe, but I found one that looked do-able with my available ingredients (this is a "leftovers" dish after all). I needed a recipe with no milk, because I only have enough for tomorrow morning's tea. 

So, to begin…

Step 1: break up bread into the kitchen scales pan. I need 8oz for the recipe, but it looks as if I have about twice that. I will make a double size pudding. This bread is REALLY hard and stale. I can only break it into big pieces. Hope it breaks down in the liquid. There isn't quite a pound of bread, but I have a sliced white loaf in the fridge- a couple of slices of that make up the weight. 

Step 2: check that the eggs are ok. There are two boxes in the fridge. One box went out of date 6 weeks ago (was buried at the back of the fridge), but the other has 2 eggs in it and hasn't reached its use-by date yet. Put them in a pan of water anyway, just to be sure. They sink, so they are ok to use. 

Step 3: soak the bread in water for 30 minutes to soften it

Step 4: get out the dry ingredients - suet, mixed dried fruit, sugar, mixed spice. I don't have mixed fruit or mixed spice, but I do have sultanas and allspice, which should be fine. 

Step 5: put on shoes, brush hair and head out to shop for sugar. I would have substituted granulated for the soft brown specified, but I don't have enough of any sugar. This is annoying, as I didn't want to shop specially for this recipe. Anyway, buy sugar (corner shop has no soft brown, but I buy demarara, which will have to do). 

Step 6: squeeze out as much water as possible from the bread. This is a HORRIBLE job. It's so slimy, ugh. Beat the lumps out of the softened bread with a wooden spoon. 

Step 7: add the rest of the ingredients and mix well

Step 8: pour into a dish and bake for an hour at gas mark 4. (I used my roasting dish, lined with foil to stop it sticking to the dish). It looks pretty horrible at this stage. 

Step 9: test after an hour. Put back in oven for another 15 minutes- still a bit wet in the middle. 

Step10: test after 15 minutes. Put back in oven for another half an hour at mark 3 ( this isn't in the recipe, but I am using my judgement here). 

Step 11: take out of oven and sprinkle top with sugar. It looks ok. I don't have a cooling rack, so I'll have to let it cool in the tin. 

Can't resist trying a slice, even though it's still really hot. 

Delicious. Not the same as when my Nan used to make it, and different from shop-bought. Seems a bit lighter, and the allspice is quite different from mixed spice. 

I hope it is as good when it cools down. 

The recipe I sort-of used is here:

http://www.messybeast.com/dragonqueen/real-breadpudding.htm