Recipes: Vegan Bread & Butter Pudding (the Epitome of Comfort Food!)

 

In the spirit of VeganMoFo and the creation of warming, comfort food, what can I say about this dish, except "oh my word"! If there was ever a dish I wanted to 'veganise', it is that epitome of fine British comfort food - the bread & butter pudding! It has got to be one of my favourite, stodgy, homely puddings EVER in the WHOLE WORLD!

And this turned out soooo good that I could mush my face in it as well as eat it. But as well as being exceptionally delicious, it is stupidly easy to make. And it doesn't require trips to three different 'niche' stores in order to create.

It's a fabulous way of using up a stale white loaf (no, don't feed it to the ducks, it's very bad for them!) and chances are, you will have most of the other ingredients in the house anyway. I mean, who doesn't have a bag of sultanas, wondering when they'll get used, stuffed at the back of their cupboard?

 

It's a short ingredients list and there are very few steps. I made up my custard with a standard custard powder for the sake of keeping things simple, and the Bird's brand available in the UK is vegan (as long as made with a non-dairy milk, of course).

If you don't have custard powder, you could use a commercial vegan custard and possibly thin it down slightly, or find a recipe for a vegan custard (it's really easy to make).

This pudding would go well with vegan ice cream although I've been eating it with a soya 'single' cream. It would also be perfect with my simple recipe for an almond pouring cream.

 Definitely one to get your teeth stuck into, and your stomach will be thanking you! And seeing as it's mostly bread - why not eat for breakfast too, like I did? Hehe.

Bread & Butter Pudding
Serves 4 greedy people (like me) or 6

8oz / 225g white bread

½ cup / 75g sultanas

2 cups + 1 tablespoon / 500ml coconut milk (carton, not canned)

1½ tablespoon custard powder (Bird's is vegan!)

¼ cup + 1 tbsp / 65g sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Enough vegan margarine (or softened coconut oil) to spread on bread

Pinch of nutmeg (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C / 355 F and grease a flan or quiche dish with oil or vegan margarine.

2. Butter the bread and cut into small triangles or quarters, then layer half of bread on the bottom of the dish, butter side up, and sprinkle half the sultanas and ½ teaspoon of the cinnamon over the bread. Do the same again with the other half of bread, layering over the existing layer, and sprinkling the remaining sultanas and cinnamon over it.

3. Make up the custard. Mix the custard powder in a small saucepan with 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of coconut milk so that it becomes a paste. Slowly combine the rest of the coconut milk so there are no lumps, then place on a medium heat and stir in the remaining sugar. Turn the heat up, bring the custard to the boil so that it thickens, then turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

4. Pour the custard over the dish of bread, making sure it goes down the cracks at the sides and coats all of the bread. If you want to add nutmeg, sprinkle a pinch of it over the top now. Then tilt the dish around slightly so that the custard has run everywhere, and place in the oven to bake for around 30 minutes.

5. The pudding will be nicely browned when ready. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before serving with a vegan cream or ice cream. Comfort food heaven!

Comments

[Adriana]

LOL "Serves 4 greedy people":)) With most of my recipes it's like "half serves me":)) I haven't made bread pudding in ages and that first picture looks sooooo tempting! The idea of using custard sounds great, I think I'll give this a try. Never bought vegan custard powder, let me see if I can find some. Great recipe, as always:)

[JL]

Do they have custard powder in the states?

[Andrea - Chocolate and Beyond]

Adriana - Bird's Custard Powder is sold in every UK supermarket and is accidentally vegan! I'm not sure about other brands? But yeah - I can easily eat a full quarter of this!

JL - I don't know about the US! Though custard powder is really just mainly cornstarch with a little colouring and flavouring. So if you do a search for 'vegan custard recipe' I think you will find something very easy to make! And try using the coconut milk, whatever the recipe says, for a nicer flavour.

[Kim]

Fantastic! I have the ingredients for this, I'll make it tonight! The Mr will be so pleased to come home to a nice hot pudding for supper :)

Thanks for sharing! X

[Andrea - Chocolate and Beyond]

Kim - I'd be so happy if you came back and let me know how it turned out!? I hope you are as happy with it as I am! Thanks for commenting.

[MG]

Bird's Custard is available on amazon.com because I buy it often.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_9?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=birds+custard+powder&sprefix=birds+cus%2Caps%2C119

[Jackie Smith]

Bird's Custard is also available at Cost Plus World Market.