Spiced Bread and Butter pudding - a Thermomix recipe

I'm using my Varoma a lot more than I used to and starting to get adventurous - well, a bit adventurous anyway.

I had some drying hot cross bun loaf that was still fine for toast but I had a thought, tried it out and it worked so I am sharing it with some of my readers who are Thermo owners.

You could make this with ordinary bread.  Just add spices to the custard.  Left over hot cross buns, tea loaf, etc - no problem!  You could use some cream instead of some of the milk.  You could use a brown sugar.  You could add citrus zest.

Oh, you get the idea.  Adaptable is its middle name!

Spiced Bread and Butter Pudding

Really delicious and filling too.

Ingredients to make two good helpings.

Two slices of hot cross bun loaf (made using a 1 lb loaf tin), buttered and cut diagonally into quarters

a little more butter for greasing the dish

Some sugar - I used about 1 tsp-ish as the bread is quite sweet.  If you use ordinary bread, you'd need more

More sugar from sprinkling over the top

Some dried fruit.  I used sultanas.  The loaf already had dried fruit in it

For the custard.

250 mls milk (or mix of milk and cream)

1 egg (medium)

A good grating of nutmeg.

You also need an oven proof dish that is not too deep and, most importantly, fits in the varoma.  You can see what I used in the photos: the dimensions are 12x18cms

Method

Grease the inside of the baking dish with butter.

Arrange the half of the buttered bread in the dish, then sprinkle over some sugar and some dried fruit.

Put the rest on top and again add sugar and dried fruit.

Mix the milk with the egg (I used a hand blender) and add the nutmeg.  

Pour it carefully over the bread and butter.  Push the bread down with a fork and then leave it for about half an hour so that the liquid soaks into the bread.  There should still be some milk visible, it won't all soak in.

Cover with cling film (the photo doesn't show this) and place in the varoma.

Boil some water and add it to the bowl - my timing relies on the water being boiling.  Put on the bowl lid and add the varoma with its lid.  The middle shelf isn't needed.

Cook on varoma heat, speed 2 for 12 mins.

Preheat your grill.  Remove the cover from the dish and sprinkle over some sugar (I didn't do this and I wish I had).  Put the dish on the grill pan and pop it under the grill for about two to three minutes - ish, until brown and crisp on top.  Keep checking.  This is the one stage where you cannot go away and do something else.

Or you could use a blow torch but I don't have one - they scare me to death!

Serve hot or cold.  If I'd had cream, there would be some in the photo!