Gluten-free bread buttered, spread thinly with orange marmalade and baked in a vanilla custard until the peaks go crisp and the middle sets to a wobble.
Prep
20 mins
Cook
45 mins
Servings
6
Per serving
£1.13
Difficulty
easy
Gluten-free bread is usually a liability, but in bread and butter pudding it is an asset: it is drier and more absorbent than a wheat loaf, so it drinks the custard without collapsing to mush. A thin scrape of marmalade under the butter cuts the richness and stops the whole thing tasting like sweetened milk.
Butter the bread right to the edges, then spread each slice thinly with the jam or marmalade. Cut each slice into two triangles. Butter a 1.5 litre baking dish.
Soak the sultanas in 3 tablespoons of just-boiled water for 10 minutes, then drain. Plumped fruit stays juicy in the custard rather than burning on top.
Any sultanas sitting proud of the custard will scorch, so tuck them between the slices as you layer.
Arrange the triangles in the dish in overlapping rows, points upward, scattering the sultanas and orange zest between the layers. Leave the top edges standing clear — those are the bits that crisp.
Whisk the whole eggs, yolks and caster sugar together, then warm the milk and cream in a pan until steaming but not boiling and pour it over the eggs, whisking constantly. Stir in the vanilla.
Pour the hot milk in slowly at first. Tipped in all at once you get sweet scrambled egg.
Strain the custard over the bread and press the slices down gently with your palm so they soak. Leave to stand for 25 minutes — this is the step people skip, and it is why their pudding is dry inside and wet on top.
Grate over a generous quarter of a nutmeg and scatter with demerara. Sit the dish in a roasting tin, pour boiling water halfway up the sides and bake at 160C fan for 40-45 minutes, until set with a faint wobble at the centre and browned at the peaks. Serve warm, with cold cream.
The water bath keeps the custard silky. Baked dry it curdles at the edges before the middle sets.