Bread and butter pudding with blackberry and lemon curd

Softened vanilla butter

300g stale** loaf of brioche or mini brioche rolls (M&S stock them, selling in packs of 8, which is roughly 300g)

500ml double cream

Pared zest of 1 lemon (use a potato peeler to pair a strip of zest from the fruit)

5 egg yolks

100 g caster sugar

150g blackberry and lemon curd (its fine to use shop bought lemon curd if you don’t have time to make it)

125g blackberries

3 tsp demerara sugar to sprinkle on top

1. Preheat the oven to 180’C, 250’F , gas mark 4.
2. If using a baking tin, use some baking parchment to spread a thin coat of vanilla butter all over the tray. If using a muffing tin, line with the individually cut pieces of baking parchment. Don’t worry if the parchment overlaps and crinkles slightly, as long as it sits nicely in the tray and comes all the way up the sides.
3. Make the vanilla butter. Run a knife along the vanilla pod, splitting it open lengthways. Scrape out the seeds and add to a bowl with the softened butter. Mix together well and set aside.
4. Slice the brioche into 1cm slices and butter each slice with some vanilla butter. Cut each slice into quarters. If you are using brioche rolls, slice each one lenghthways into three. Set aside.
5. Measure the cream and milk into a saucepan, and add the scraped out vanilla pod along with the pared lemon zest. Heat gently until just below boiling point.
6. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until pale in colour and slightly thickened.
7. Remove the vanilla pod and lemon rind from the heated cream, and pour gradually over the eggs and sugar, whisking all the time. Set aside to cool slightly.
8. Spread a thin layer of curd all over your baking tin or add 1 tsp of curd to each muffin mould. Spread a very thin layer of curd on each slice of bread and lay into whatever tray you are using. Don’t worry about being too precise. When your baking tray or muffin tin is filled with bread, dot the blackberries in the cracks and crevices left between the layers of bread, squeezing them slightly to release their juice.
9. Transfer the custard to a jug, and gently pour over the bread, allowing it to soak up the liquid as you pour.
10. When you have poured on all of the custard, set the puddings aside to soak up the liquid for about 30 minutes*.
11. When ready, sprinkle the demereara sugar over the pudding. Put the tin in a roasting tray and pour in enough boiling water to come half way up the side of the baking tin/muffin mould. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Keep an eye to make sure any exposed crusts of bread are not burning. If so, simply cover the pudding with a sheet of tin foil.
12. Serve with double cream.

*You can make this pudding in advance up to the point where the bread is soaking up the custard. If you are serving this for a dinner party, make it juring the day, and put into the oven about 1 hour before you plan to serve it. This will give the pudding time to cool  a little before serving. The flavours will also develop and settle down while it is relaxing out of the oven.

**It is important to use stale bread, as fresh bread can give you a soggy bread and butter pudding. If you don’t have any stale bread, slice the bread you have and leave it exposed to the air for a few hours before cooking to dry it out a little.