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Bread Custard Pudding
Make a custard according to size of pudding required. 1 pint of custard will fill a mediumsized dish. Cut slices of thin bread and butter, to suit the dish, and over each layer throw currants, sugar, and finely cut candied lemon, and a little nutmeg. Pour the custard over by degrees so that the bread may be well saturated, and let it stand an hour before putting it into the oven. Just before it is put in, throw over the last of the custard, and bake in a moderate oven for half an hour.
A Victorian bread-and-butter pudding in shorthand: the writer assumes you already know how to mix a custard and only tells you how to layer it. The hour of soaking before baking is the part that decides whether this is a pudding or wet bread with a skin on top.
- What "a custard" means hereAn uncooked custard mixture, not a cooked pouring custard: roughly 1 pint (2 cups) milk to 3 eggs, sweetened with 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar. It sets in the oven, so it should be thin enough to soak into bread.
- Moderate ovenAbout 350F ('moderate' in books of the period covers roughly 325-375F). At much above that the egg curdles at the edges before the middle sets, and the custard weeps.
- Half an hour is for a small dishA pint of custard in a shallow medium dish will be done in about 30 to 35 minutes. A deeper dish or a doubled quantity needs 45 to 55 minutes. It is done when the centre is just set and barely trembles; a knife inserted an inch from the middle comes out clean.
- CurrantsDried Zante currants, the small black raisins, not fresh redcurrants or blackcurrants. About 1/3 cup for a pint of custard. Soaking them in hot water for ten minutes keeps them from scorching on top.
- Candied lemonCandied lemon peel, sold in strips or diced in the baking aisle. Two tablespoons, finely chopped, is plenty; the finely cut grated zest of a lemon is a reasonable substitute if the candied kind is unavailable.
- The soaking hourDo not shorten it. Bread that goes into the oven dry stays dry in the centre and floats free of the custard, leaving a layer of set egg beneath it.
- The breadThin slices of a plain white loaf, a day or two old, buttered on one side and left uncrusted or not as you prefer. Enriched breads such as brioche soak faster and need less than the full hour.
- A water bath helpsStanding the dish in a roasting pan of hot water reaching halfway up the sides gives a smoother set, which is worth doing if the dish is deep. The top will still brown.
- YieldA pint of custard with bread fills a dish serving four. Serve warm rather than hot; the custard firms slightly as it cools.