Bread, Butter and Marmalade Pudding

Having made marmalade a few days ago and knowing that there were some good marmalade pudding recipes and cakes around, I set about searching for them.  Some were in my cookbooks and in clippings I had saved, but this one, found online, appealed to me most as a good midwinter pud.  It is very easy to make - just a variation of bread and butter pudding.







Not only that, but I had all the ingredients and even some vanilla pods from Madascar, courtesy of my friend's son.
The recipe is by Matthew Drennan, in Delicious magazine. I hope he won't mind my blogging it. You can find it and other recipes on www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk.  It serves 6 - 8 and it deserves to be shared.

Ingredients:

50 g (2 oz) butter, softened
7 - 9 slices of white bread, crusts removed
9 Tablespoons marmalade
100 g sultanas (about 1/2 cup)
225 ml cream, plus more to serve (about 1 cup)
225 ml milk (about 1 cup)
3 medium eggs
50 g (2 oz) sugar
1 vanilla pod, split lenghways, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Icing sugar for dusting

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
• Butter a dish large enough to hold the pudding
• Spread the butter on each slice of bread, then spread the marmalade on top.
• Cut into triangles.
• Arrange about half the bread on the bottom of the pan in a single layer.
• Sprinkle the sultanas over the bottom layer.
• Arrange the rest of the bread on top.
• Lightly whisk the cream, milk, eggs and sugar in a bowl.
• Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod into the cream mixture.
• Rinse and dry the pod and put it in a jar of sugar to make vanilla sugar.
• Pour the mixture over the bread and leave it to soak for 5 - 10 minutes.
• Put the dish in a bain marie (another pan with some boiling water in it).
• Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown on top and lightly set in the middle.
• Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then dust with icing sugar and serve with cream.

So creamy.  I can't think of a better winter dessert.