Sunday 16 June 2013

Brilliant Bread Pudding

Brioche con Uvetta & Rabarbaro al Forno
Raisin Brioche & Rhubarb Bread Pudding


There's no rest for the wicked- and no waste in my kitchen! It seems that no sooner than I laid down to sleep last night, I was rubbing my eyes and stumbling out of bed again- ah, the joys of not sleeping well! Although, I do have to say, I did actually manage to get almost 5 hours of sleep, so that was better than my average of 3!

Challenged with the thought of breakfast, I was almost tempted to just enjoy the couple of tiny raisin brioche-rolls that my friend Michael gave me yesterday- he had bought a large bag of them at the farmers market and insisted I try them... how kind! Of course, by the time I got around to doing so this morning, they were a little dried out and passed their prime... or were they?


I thought of slicing them in half, toasting them, buttering them up a little although they were buttery enough and spreading them with jam- perfectly wonderful with a barrel of coffee to go with them I thought. And then I thought a little bit further... and remembered the wonderful, freshly made, sweet and tangy rhubarb compote from just last night... and simply took that initial idea a couple of steps further!

What looks rather complicated and fussy was actually very, very easy to make! Basically, all I did was to cut the rolls into thin slices and to lay them out in a baking dish, then spoon some of the compote in-between the slices of bread. Fortunately for me, had I tried to do that with the the whole of each roll, they wouldn't have fitted into the baking dish any more- so I was able to nibble on some of the slices I removed whilst I "worked"- a little treat for the cook!


Once I had filled up the rolls nicely, I made a simple "royale" from 1 egg and a good splash of milk- roughly speaking, you can fill one half of the egg shell with milk and repeat this 4-5 times- that will do it. I sweetened mine with Stevia- of course you can use sugar, then added cinnamon and a little vanilla essence, and whisked it up until it was nice and fluffy- then poured it over the sliced brioche, in-between the slices, so that they would soak the liquid up. 

I then gently pressed down on the brioche, so that it would indeed soak up the "royale" like a sponge, then popped the finished bread pudding into a pre-heated oven to bake for 30 minutes at 350°F. Once it was nicely baked (and the apartment was smelling divine!), I took it out of the oven briefly to add a light drizzle of honey, then popped it back, under the broiler, for 2 minutes to turn wonderfully golden brown... and then rushed it to the breakfast table, grabbed my coffee and enjoyed my little decadent breakfast treat immensely! I think somehow you will too!

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