Apricot, Cranberry & Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding with Rhubarb Orange Compote
Rhubarb season + Easter coming up = time to make my indulgent brioche bread and butter pudding with rhubarb compote. I love bread and butter pudding. Proper good-old fashioned comfort food. Nothing fancy, but just deliciously easy and it has to be super gooey and soft in the middle and beautifully crunchy on top. This is a lovely easter recipe which you can use with any leftover Easter egg chocolate (no I don’t know what that is either) or just any chocolate you have in the cupboard. The staler the brioche, the better and this compote is sooooo good to top your breakfast or serve with any pudding of your choice.
SERVES 4
Cook: 30 mins
Prep: 20 mins
Ingredients:
1 Brioche Loaf, crusts removed (the staler the bread, the better)
50g-75g softened butter
50g dried apricots, roughly chopped
50g dried cranberries
100g-150g mixture of dark, white and milk chocolate or leftover easter eggs!, roughly chopped or broken
3 large eggs
50g golden caster sugar
400ml whole milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1 orange, zest
30g demerara sugar for sprinkling
For the rhubarb and raspberry compote:*
400g rhubarb, chopped into 2cm chunks
200g frozen raspberries
70g golden caster sugar
2 oranges, zest of one and juice of two (use the zested orange from above)
1 tbsp cornflour
*This recipe makes extra compote so use it to top your morning yoghurt and granola, stir into porridge or serve with any dessert of your choosing!
Method:
Grease your baking dish with butter. Cut the slices of bread into triangles and spread generously with butter. Arrange the triangle slices in the dish so they are overlapping each other.
Sprinkle over the dried fruit and chocolate so they are evenly distributed.
Make the egg custard by beating the eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, pinch of salt and orange zest in a bowl. Pour this over the bread. (Depending on how fresh your bread is you may need to wait a few minutes for the bread to soak up some of the mixture and then pour over the rest. Allow to stand for 15 minutes so the bread can soak up the mixture). Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan.
Sprinkle over the demerara sugar and bake for 30 minutes until golden and slightly crispy.
Meanwhile, make the compote. Add the fruit, sugar, orange zest and juice to a saucepan. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved and simmer for 10 minutes until the compote has thickened. After 10 minutes if the compote is still quite runny, remove a tbsp of the juice and add to a small bowl with 1 tbsp of cornflour. Mix until you have a smooth paste then add to the compote and simmer for a few more minutes until thickened. Leave to cool.
When the pudding is ready, allow it to stand for 5 minutes before serving with a dollop of creme fraiche and compote.