Another
nice simple recipe: bread, butter, eggs, milk, sugar and raisins. It still
falls under the heading of “comfort food” even though it comes from a pub
cookbook. I will confess that dessert is not why I go to Irish pubs, but this
sounded tasty, and it does turn a pretty gold when it’s cooked.
Bread
and Butter Pudding
Ingredients:
6
Tblsp salted butter, softened
6
thick slices hearty white bread
1/4
cup each of raisins, golden raisins and currants (or other dried fruit)
3
large eggs
1-1/4
cups whole milk
2/3
cup heavy cream
1/4
cup sugar
Grated
nutmeg (optional)
1
Tblsp demerara (coarse) sugar
Instructions:
Preheat
the oven to 350 degrees F. Use a little butter to grease a 9”x9” or 8"x10" baking pan.
Then use the rest of the butter to generously coat the bread slices (both sides).
Cut the slices into quarters or halves (depending on your bread) and overlap
half of them in the bottom of the baking dish.
Scatter
half the dried fruit over the bread. Cover with the rest of the bread slices
and add the rest of the dried fruit.
Whisk
the eggs in a large pitcher (or a bowl with a pour spout), then mix in the
cream, milk and granulated sugar. Pour the mixture over the bread layers and
let stand for 15 minutes more or less so the bread soaks up some of the liquid.
Grate
some nutmeg over the top (if you want) then sprinkle on the demerara sugar.
Place
the dish on a baking sheet and bake in the upper part of the preheated oven for
30-40 minutes until the liquid is set and the bread is golden-brown on top.
Remove
from the oven and serve warm. (This will cut fairly easily without falling
apart.)
You
can vary the type of bread you use, and also the dried fruit. Or add some
candied fruit as well.
I'm still trying to remember if I've ever had dessert in an Irish pub. Of course, "pub" is a variable term--it can be anything from a dark hole in the wall with a bunch of guys drinking pints and not saying much to a large space filled with people who might happen to be playing Trivial Pursuit (I've seen it), that just happens to have a bar somewhere in the room. But most of them are friendly places, so why not have dessert?
(P.S. I'd give you more pretty pictures but I'm between computers and everything seems to be somewhere else. But Maura and her staff are building a new kitchen at Sullivan's, so I'll be looking for easy pub recipes. Funny--the same thing is happening at the "real" pub, Connolly's, that's the model for Sullivan's. Last time I looked, what used to be the kitchen was rubble, but the new one will be bigger and better!)
