Irish Bread and Butter Pudding

Mr K is down with the flu, and that combined with a ridiculous cold snap (38 degrees celsius and then 15 the next!!) the only option was to rustle up some chilly weather comfort food. 

I ate this bread and butter pudding very often as a little girl at my grandmother’s house.  Nan would often have a large table of family to cook for each evening with not only family members but a smattering of their friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, mates, visiting second cousins! You get the picture. The beauty of this pudding is you can rummage in the back of your cupboard for your largest baking dish and crank up the quantities to feed an unexpected crowd. It also works equally as well with (shock horror) margarine, which Nan switched to in the heart health conscious 1980s – although I wouldn’t suggest you use it in the sauce. You can also use cinnamon in preference to nutmeg. I can remember Nan grabbing the easiest spice to hand to throw in from her lovely “British racing green” spice canister.  I’m sure she also made it with mixed spice or all spice!

I think this bread and butter pudding is probably Ireland’s answer to Greece’s Galaktoboureko.  They are both very custardy, with hints of vanilla and subtle spices.  The use of bread compared to the filo pastry is probably the result of climate - to sustain you through a blisteringly cold Irish winter.  Cold winters aside, I hope you enjoy this little Irish family tradition!!