This recipe was inspired from Sam’s lack of a sweet tooth. Listing dozens of recipes and getting little enthusiasm left, I seemed to hit the jack pot when he nodded at bread and butter pudding. However, I’ve never seen anything overly exciting about a bread and butter pudding so started thinking of ways to jazz it up and thus, the caramel croissant bread and butter pudding was born!
All you really do is swap the bread for croissants (and you don’t even need to bother about the buttering! and make a sweeter creme anglaise). The only thing which might be more strenuous is making the caramel, but be patient and you’ll end up with a delicious, caramelly delight. Feel free to add any other ‘extras’. For my recipes, I used sultanas the first time and sliced almonds the second – each were equally tasty.
Ingredients (to serve 4)
4 croissants – sliced into wedges
100 grams white sugar
4 tbsp cold water
250ml double cream
250ml milk
4 eggs
Extras:
Handful of sultanas
Almonds or other nuts
Fruit (banana, pear.. anything slightly soft)
Method:
1. Place the croissants in a heat proof bowl and scatter any extras on top. Choose a bowl which allows you to snugly fit in 2 layers of the croissants.
We got a selection of almond croissants and normal croissants!
2. Dissolve the sugar in the water and stir over a medium heat until it starts to form a caramel. This may take a little bit of time, so be patient with it!
3. When the caramel turns amber, mix in the cream and milk, stirring hard. Don’t panic if the caramel automatically goes hard (this happened to me and I was terrified!) but it soon melts back down so keep stirring until it does. Heat until the cream boils and then turn off the heat.
As you can see, there’s still a little of the hard caramel on the whisk – just keep on mixing until it dissolves!
4. Whisk in the eggs. It may help to get someone to help you crack the eggs in, otherwise you’re at risk of having the eggs cook while you pick up the whisk!
Pour the custard onto the croissants
5. Pour over the croissants and leave the mixture to soak into the croissants.
Leave to soak in the custard!
6. Bake in a 180C oven for 20 – 25 minutes.
Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
