Tuesday 10 April 2012

Buns and Butter Pudding

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend... mine was filled with loads of food and a company of lovely friends, so I really couldn't ask for a better one. I ditched lamb for our Easter dinner this year, and instead I cooked slow-roast pork belly and non of my friends complained. We all love pork belly. And with pork belly and crunchy cracklings, I have to have braised red cabbage with apple, bacon and balsamic vinegar.

Phil from As Strong As Soup suggested to add the pomegranate molasses that I have that needs using to braised red cabbage. And I am glad I listened to him. The pomegranate molasses along with the balsamic vinegar give a lovely zinc to the braised red cabbage; and I always think it's nice to have something acidic to balance the richness of the pork belly. So, thank you Phil!

There were also hasselback potatoes with rosemary and sprouts cooked in Marsala and chorizo, but let's focus on the pudding. The divine inspiration for this (hot cross) buns and butter pudding comes from Jamie Oliver, but I altered the recipe, not too much, to my liking. Wonderful bakers out there I'm sure baked their own hot cross buns around this time, I took a shortcut and bought mine from M&S. I hope you're not too disappointed.

Anyway, some of the changes I made are, I didn't use orange zest, but instead, I slathered the hot cross buns halves in soft butter and marmalade. Then, to the custard I added a pinch of cinnamon and a generous splosh of brandy... oh yeah! How bad can that be? It feels so Christmassy and I do love that time of year. And because I wanted a bit of crunch, I topped the bread pudding with toasted flaked almonds halfway through baking time.

This is one seriously delicious bread pudding. Serve warm with more of the custard....


Buns and Butter Pudding
Recipe by Jamie Oliver
For list of ingredients and instructions, click here.

11 comments:

  1. I think M&S HCBs are pretty hard to beat - the chef certainly used to use them for Bread and Butter puddings when I worked in a hotel kitchen as a teenager! Delicious.

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  2. Food, family and friends make for a perfect Easter, Michael. Love, love your bread pudding!

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  3. ooooh Michael... I could just sink into this pudding... my favourite!... looks so beautiful x

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  4. wowzer, pass the plate please.

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  5. Great dessert idea - I'd love some of that. M&S buns have always been my favourite (if not home made, of course) but this year I confess a weakness for Heston's Earl Grey and mandarin buns.
    Really pleased you enjoyed the red cabbage with pomegranate molasses but credit should really go to the excellent Ozlem over at Ozlem's Turkish table, who first thought of it. Her blog is well worth checking out: http://ozlemsturkishtable.com/

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  6. Ummmm, mmmmm! It all sounds good, but I especially love that dessert. I love your twist on it and know it was a hit!

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  7. Sounds like you had not only lovely company but fantastic food! What a great way to spend the day :)
    I'm not a huge fan of bread pudding, but this looks amazing!!

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  8. Buns and butter pudding- you've got me hooked! What a great suggestion for slightly stale buns (not that I sadly allow buns to get into such a state in our house- infact they are usually scoffed within hours of purchase).

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  9. Michael, it sure sounds that you had a great Easter weekend :)
    Your pudding looks awesome...perfect for Easter!
    Thanks for sharing the recipe and hope you are having a nice week

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  10. What an amazing and delicious bread/buns pudding. Now I know what to do with leftover buns, besides freezing half of them when I bring them home from the bakery shop!
    Hope you had a wonderful Easter, Michael!
    Happy Belated Easter, to you too my friend:DDD

    No worries...I think of you, even if I forget to wish you a Happy (holiday occasion)

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