BREAD PUDDING

This is one of my favourite desserts - quick and easy.  The ingredients are easily and readily available in most homes.  A wonderful way to finish off those last bits of old bread.  I first ate this as a young, twenty something in my friend's home in Bangalore.  Her mother would produce this at short notice.  She had taught her kitchen help how to make this dessert. In later years, I recall their manservant, whose name was Radhakrishnan, being told to make it for me, as it was, and still is a dessert that I am fond of.  I wonder if Radhakrishnan made this in other homes that he worked in or was this something he only made in my friend's home, under the tutelage of my friend's mother.  

Ingredients

Bread - 200 grams

Evaporated milk - 1 1/3 cup (can use regular full cream milk)

Butter - 1/8 cup

Sugar - 1/2 cup 

Eggs - 2

Vanilla - 1/2 tsp

Jam - 1 tsp

Use leftover bread.  For this recipe, I used part of a baguette and a hamburger bun.  Roughly break bread into chunks.  Warm the milk in the microwave for about 2 minutes.  Watch to make sure that milk does not boil over into the microwave.  Pour over the bread, mash the bread in and let it stand until the other ingredients are ready.   

Cut the butter into small pieces and add the sugar.

Cream the butter and sugar until it looks like the picture below.

Crack the eggs in and mix well.

Add 1/2 a tsp of vanilla.

Stir and mix the vanilla in.  Then add the bread.

Mix in evenly.  

Dot with jam.

Cover with wax paper, making a fold in the middle and tie securely with kitchen twine.

Boil water in a large pan.  Turn down heat to a steady, bubbling simmer.  Place pudding bowl in the pan of water.   The water just needs to come up halfway —not all the way—up the sides of the level of the pudding in the bowl.  This is a Bain Marie.

The water must be steadily simmering for the pudding to cook.  

Check the pudding regularly.  If the water level goes down, top up with boiling water.  After an hour, open up the parchment paper cover and check the pudding.  If it is not done yet, tie the cover back and steam for another 15 to 30 minutes until done.  

The pudding is done when it is firm to the touch on the top, especially in the centre.  The colour would have changed to a golden yellow, and will have separated slightly from the sides of the bowl.  See picture below.

Serve in individual bowls and drizzle some warm golden syrup on top.  This makes it really delicious.