Bread Pudding -Pouding au Pain

French and la baguette! It’s a thing! A routine where many locals buy daily, fresh from the boulangerie. Maybe you are living alone and want a single portion fresh upon consumption? No problem, request a demi-baguette and the baker will gladly sell you half a baguette. Fancy a crusty baguette? Request for bien-cuite and if you want it less crusty, order mi-cuit.

For me, I often buy a whole baguette every 2 days and as much as my family loves a freshly baked baguette, we often have leftovers. Baguettes turned stale and so hard, you can knock it. To reduce wastage and for conscious consumption reasons, french families often make Pain Perdu a.k.a French Toast. I wrote a recipe here if you would like to know more about Pain Perdu.

What else can you do with stale bread?

• Pain Perdu (French Toast)

• Pounding au Pain (Bread Pudding)

• Chapelure (Bread Crumbs)

• Tartine de Pain (Bread crackers)

• Croûtons (Croutons for soup)

We had some baguettes gone hard after a cheese and wine session with some friends the night before and decided to make a quick and easy bread pudding. This recipe is rhum and raison free but add them in if you fancy.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 a baguette

• 1 croissant

• 3 eggs

• 1 sachet of vanilla sugar or vanilla essence

• 500ml milk

• 2 tbsp cinnamon powder

• 3 tbsp of brown sugar or castor sugar

And a handful of raisins if you wish. I didn’t have some on hand at the time of baking this dessert but it still tasted great! Also, if you wish for some alcohol goodness, add a splash of rhum and you’d get a really, really delicious dessert.

Instructions:

1. In a small casserole, warm up the milk with vanilla sugar / vanilla essence together with the brown sugar.

2. Beat 3 eggs and gently pour into the casserole when it’s hot. The liquid should be hot but not boiling.

3. Finally, add in cinnamon powder into the casserole and let it warm up for around 10 minutes.

4. While the liquid mixture is warming up, cut the bread into bite sized pieces squares around 1 inch and spread them over a baking dish.

5. If you are adding raisins, use them at this step and spread them over the bread in the baking dish.

6. Gently pour over the liquid mixture over the bread. Using a spoon, press in the bread so it soaks up the liquid and then over more liquid over until the baking dish is filled but leaving some bread surfacing. This way, you get a crispy top layer!

7. Bake at 180 degrees for 45 minutes.

Best eaten warm, pour over some Crème Anglais (The french version of a custard but more runny) over the baked bread pudding and take a spoonful. Custard cream eaten with toasty bread soaked in milk is heavenly.

Make them in a larger dish and you get to eat it for the next 2 days! Simply re-bake for a couple of minutes in the oven and pour over la Crème Anglais each time.