Madhouse recipe : Chocolate chip brioche bread & butter pudding

Bread and butter pudding is a classic British dessert, perfect for using up stale bread. Normally you cut the crusts off sliced bread, scatter over raisins, pour over custard and bake it. As I was on a #KitchenClearout mission, I tweaked the recipe to use up what was in the cupboards and it worked very well.

The main thing I wanted to use up was a packet of Green's Egg Custard Filling from a recent Degustabox which, surprisingly, needs no baking. As I had a roll of ready-made pastry in the fridge, I decided to make little custard tarts. I also had a carton of Koko Dairy Free milk alternative, also from a Degustabox, so I decided to use this for the custard. It made a very thin custard and I wasn't at all sure that it would set - it turns out that I was right, the custard tarts turned out very soggy. I had lots of leftover custard, which is where my bread and butter pudding idea kicked in.

I rummaged through the bread/bakery drawer in the kitchen - I'm sure that had you scratching your head, wondering what I'm on about ! In our French fitted kitchen, there is a narrow, deep drawer designed for storing baguettes - we fill it up with all the bread and bakery products that the kids eat for breakfast. I had a rummage through to see what needed using up and came up with three pains au chocolat and about ten slices of slightly stale chocolate chip brioche. Perfect !

Chocolate chip brioche bread & butter pudding

ingredients :

3 pains au chocolat

10 slices of chocolate chip brioche

some butter

some dried cranberries

some flaked almonds

some chocolate chips

some egg custard (left over from making custard tarts)

Slice the pains au chocolat in half through the thickness and arrange them in the bottom of a cake tin.

Scatter over a handful of dried cranberries.

Cut the brioche slices into two triangles and spread with butter.

Arrange the slices of brioche in the tin, with the points of the triangles pointing upwards. Pour over the custard.

I found some ends of bags of chocolate shavings and flaked almonds, so I scattered some over the top.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes then finish off with five minutes under the grill so the top of the bread goes nice and golden and crusty.

The custard was all soaked up by the brioche so the bottoms of the slices were soft and melt in the mouth, while the top added some crunchy contrast. Very tasty and a great way of using up lots of odds and ends.

Adding to this month's #KitchenClearout linky because it cleared out lots of ends of packets, stale brioche and leftover custard.