Good morning Delia.
I am wondering if you have in your archives a recipe for a good old fashioned Bread Pudding that our grandma's used to make during the war.
All I can remember is my grandma soaking bread in milk, squeezing the access milk out and then adding spices, sugar and sultana's and putting it in to a tin then baking it and it was yum when we were kids.
I wished I had asked her for the recipe before she sadly passed away all those years ago as I dearly love to make it for my grandchildren.
Best regards
Ann Milne
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Good morning Ann,
Delia doesn’t squeeze out the milk, but we have this more recently published recipe…
Spiced Bread Pudding
Or here is the earlier version published in 1978…
Old-fashioned bread pudding
(Serves 4 people)
This is a lovely spicy cross between a cake and a pudding - perfect for using left-over bread.
8 oz bread (225 g) - it doesn't matter whether this is brown or white but cut off the crusts
10 fl oz (275ml) milk
2 oz (50g) butter, melted
3 oz (75g) soft brown sugar - if you don't have any brown sugar, you can use white 2 level teaspoons mixed spice
1 egg, beaten
6 oz (175g) dried mixed fruit - currants, raisins, sultanas, candied peel
Grated rind of ½ orange
Freshly grated nutmeg
Pre-heat the oven to 180C, gas mark 4, 350°F
A 2-2½ pint (1.25-1.5 litre) baking dish, buttered.
Begin by breaking the bread into suitable-sized pieces and place them in a bowl.
Pour over the milk, then give the mixture a good stir and leave it for about 30 minutes so that the bread becomes well soaked with the milk.
Now add the melted butter, the sugar, mixed spice and beaten egg. Using a fork, beat the mixture well, making sure that no lumps remain, then stir in the mixed fruit and orange rind.
Next spread the mixture in the prepared baking dish and sprinkle over some freshly grated nutmeg.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 1¼ hours.
This is nice served with hot custard, but some people are particularly partial to eating it cold.
Or my late Auntie Kitty very kindly gave me her copy of the Good Housekeeping Encyclopaedia which was published in 1951. This book has the following recipe….
Bread Pudding
3 oz stale bread
1 ½ oz suet
1 oz flour
I oz. currants or sultanas
I oz sugar
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon spice
Milk if required
Soak the bread in cold water until it is soft, then strain it, press it well in a colander and mash it with a fork.
Chop the suet, if necessary, and mix it with the bread, flour, sugar, baking powder, spice and fruit, adding a little milk or water to bind, if required.
Put the mixture in a greased pie-dish and bake in a moderate oven (350° F.) for 45 minutes.
I hope this is all helpful.
Best wishes
Lindsey