Spring Cooking with Island Menu - Bread and Butter Pudding with Dark Chocolate and Orange Zest

Written
by
Jenny Butler
Writer
Jenny Butler
30th of September 2011

A huge THANK YOU to Catherine Miller and Sam Shelley of Island Menu for this week's Spring Cooking Guest Blog! It has been fantastic seeing some of the exquisite local Tassie produce and sampling some of the great Island Menu recipes. Be sure to visit Island Menu and cook something new this weekend! - Jenny x

This recipe came about for a few reasons, the first being my desire to try the new Meander Valley Saint Omer butter, I had read somewhere it was as good as some French and that definitely piqued my curiosity. Also I had some lovely eggs from Matthew Evans farm via A Common Ground that I am addicted to, they are sooooo good. So what to do with eggs and butter?

Bread and butter pudding is something I have only recently - well, in the past few years - thought of as a dessert I would eat, and honestly I have no idea why I had reservations about it!  If done well it is amazing. I brought some brioche from a local patisserie called Jean Pascal that I knew would work perfectly, somewhat nicer than some soggy old white bread!

Bread and Butter Pudding with Dark Chocolate and Orange Zest ½ a loaf of brioche cut into slices and then in half butter to grease the dish, plus enough to butter both sides of the brioche) 6 eggs 600ml milk Seeds from one vanilla bean ½ teaspoon cinnamon zest of one orange 1 small block of dark chocolate (I used the lindt 70% cocoa) 1/4 cup caster sugar (I use raw)

Preheat the oven to 180 celcius. Grease an oven proof dish (1 litre capacity) and butter both sides of your sliced bread. Layer them in the dish poking in bits of broken chocolate as you go. Once done whisk the milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, orange zest, and cinnamon together and gently pour over the bread, you might need to do this in installments waiting for the bread to absorb the mix. Sprinkle a little bit of extra sugar over the top and place in the oven. Bake for approximately 35 minutes but as always keep an eye on it.  Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

- Catherine

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