In a fit of efficiency a few days ago, I used up some of the odds and ends in the kitchen to make this delicious bread pudding. The recipe comes from Gordon Ramsay’s “Just Desserts” and I modified it very slightly to accomodate what I had to hand. I have a feeling that this recipe would work well with other cream liqueurs too. Advocaat would be really nice!

Gordon prefers to use baguettes to make his bread pudding to ensure that you get the full flavour from the custard. As I had some left-over brioche that had gone stale I used this instead and the Baileys custard flavour came through nicely. As I was loath to open a new packet of unsalted butter I used some slightly salted butter on the bread. I’d actually recommend this over unsalted for such a rich dish - it seems to balance the flavours nicely and keeps it from being too cloying. What else? Oh, I didn’t have any apricot jam so I omitted that step entirely. This left me with a gorgeously crunchy, sugary topping on the pudding so I was more than happy with that.

Baguette and butter pudding laced with Baileys

- serves 6

50g butter, softened
1/2 large French stick (about 150g) thinly sliced- I used brioche and actually used about 300g. The stated amount didn’t come close to filling my dish.
60g sultanas or dried cranberries or a mixture of both
2 large free-range egg yolks
2 large free-range eggs
40g caster sugar
300ml double cream
300ml milk - I used full-fat
4 tablespoons Baileys cream liqueur, or more to taste
demerera sugar, to sprinkle
3 tablespoons apricot jam

Use a large knob of the butter to grease a 1.5L shallow ovenproof dish. Spread the remaining butter on the bread slices. Arrange the bread in the dish in overlapping rows. Sprinkle the dried fruit over and inbetween the layers.

Beat the egg yolks, eggs and sugar together until light and creamy then add the cream, milk and Baileys. Slowly pour the mixture over the bread/fruit.

Press the bread slices down until completely submerged in the custard.

Leave to stand for 20 minutes for the bread to absorb the custard. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C.

Stand the dish in a roasting tin and pour boiling water around the sides until it comes halfway up the side of the dish. Sprinkle with demerera sugar and bake for 40-50 minutes until golden. Shortly before this time is up, warm the apricot jam gently until runny.

Dab this glaze over the surface of the pudding and leave to stand (out of the bain marie) for 15 minutes before serving. The custard will continue to cook and firm during this time. Serve with some more Baileys trickled over if you like.