Butterscotch brioche bread pudding- A guest post by Nisha

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I am so excited to have the first guest post in Collaborative Curry by lovely, Nisha of "Look Who's cooking Too". She is so full of energy,very friendly and as she herself says, an open book.I love her writing and the variety in the recipes she pots in her lovely blog. She is a freelance writer too, based in London.If you haven't visited her blog so far, you must do it now. She has a splendid collection of recipes and you will be amused by the variety.I have tried her condensed milk pound cake, but never got around to blog about, it was such a big hit so I'll make it again sometimes soon.Don't forget to check out her Indian recipes ranging from Goan Prawns curry to Fish molee.

I so want to make this pudding as soon as I get back from India. I am sure you will also enjoy this recipe ! Hearty welcome to Collaborative Curry, Nisha. I am so grateful that you agreed to do this post !


Collaborative curry was one of those first blogs that I stumbled upon, when I was new to the whole blogging scene; and Sunitha was the first food blogger I ever spoke to. We had a loooong skype session once and it was so so much fun:). Again, like I have mentioned before, I have a list of food bloggers I'd like to meet some day, and Namitha and Sunitha definitely make the list. But till then, I guess we will just have to make do with FB, skype, chats and blogs.

I was mighty thrilled when Namitha wrote in asking me to do a guest post while she was away vacationing in India. I of course jumped at the opportunity and put my mind to work thinking what I'd whip up for a blog that has some amazing recipes and gorgeous pictures. After some brainstorming, we decided on the Bread Pudding and I was glad because it is one of my current favs. But wait a minute, that was not the case till recently. Care to read the story? Well! here goes...

My first taste of bread pudding was when I was in school or something. My mums favourite dessert to make when we had guests over was either the bread and butter pudding, a pineapple pudding or a biscuit pudding. She claimed they were all super easy to make which is why it made its way through to our parties ever so often. Last Christmas, when we were all home in India and while discussing the Christmas menu, we asked her what was dessert and these 3 options came up again. And my brother and myself in unison said, NOT AGAIN!! That's how much we detested the three desserts. (The fact that we still ended up having pineapple pudding after much discussion, speculation and arguments is another story altogether).

With this aversion to bread pudding in mind, I never really bothered giving it a go anywhere else. It is mostly available in the dessert section of almost every pub menu along with the quintessential British favs sticky toffee pudding and apple pie, but I never really favoured it since it was something I'd grown up with. But it all changed, just recently. We decided to hit a riverside pub on one of those glorious spring evenings when the sun was out and every Londonite was either out in the park or in a pub. You would know by now that the pub culture in UK is so flourished, that even on a Monday afternoon, you can see pubs full of the working crowd. No monday blues in UK I guess:)

Anyways, we grabbed a couple of beers and ciders and basked in the sun like nutcases who were sun deprived and invariably ended up having dinner there. Pub food is not so awesome, unless you go to a theme pub like a Thai or a Spanish inspired one and other than the usual burgers, fish and chips and bangers and mash, the options are not too varied. But I somehow always love pub desserts which I feel is as authentic as it can get. Im probably wrong about this, but it works for me. I decided on a treacle tart but as luck would have it, that was sold out and my only other option was a brioche bread pudding. Ok what the hell I thought, never tried a 'brioche' bread pudding, so ordered it without much expectation. The pudding arrived and it looked as unappetising as I thought it would be, but one bite into the warm and gooey pudding and boy was I wrong. It was just absolutely delish.

The fact that it was made of brioche just took it a notch higher and the slight caramel taste was fabulous. The only thing I didnt quite enjoy was biting into the raisins, but thats a small price to pay for a tasty bowl of bread pudding. I called up my mom the next day and told her that the bread pudding she makes is not bread pudding at all and to chuck her recipe out. She replied that if she were to get her hands on bread with such high content of butter and eggs, even her pudding would taste great. I argued and have promised to make it for her when I have a chance. I was determined to replicate it at home and so set about googling the recipe. I was not too successful at it, but with some tweaks and adjustments to this recipe, I was able to recreate something close to what I had envisaged. The recipe is quite forgiving and the options are endless. This is however the basic version which since then, I have made quite a number of times, and the results just keep improving. The final outcome doesn't look all fancy and pretty, but trust me, it tastes so darn good, you have to make a conscious effort to not go for a second bowl.

I couldnt think of a better way to show my gratitude to Namitha and Sunitha than offer them a slice of this fabulous pudding, from across the pond. Hope you guys enjoy it and thanks once again for this opportunity.

Serves 4

Brioche bread- 200 gms
Caramel sauce- 1/4 cup (optional)
Single pouring cream- 1/2 cup
Whole milk- 1/2 cup
Egg- 1, large
Dark brown sugar- 1/4 cup + enough to spinkle
Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp

Smear the caramel sauce along the bottom and sides of a medium size baking dish or 4 small ramekins.
Tear the brioche bread into medium size pieces and roughly scatter on top of the caramel. Do not press it down.
Into a large mixing bowl add the single cream, milk, egg, brown sugar and vanilla extract
Whisk well until all the sugar has dissolved and everything's blended well together.
Pour this mix over the brioche bread slices as evenly as possible and leave aside for 15 minutes. This helps the bread soak up all that goodness.
Go ahead and pre-heat the oven to 175C at this point.
When the times's up, sprinkle some brown sugar on top of the slices and chuck them into the oven.
Bake for about 35 minutes.
To check if its done, insert a knife into the pudding and if its not watery when pulled out then you are good to go.
Place the dish on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes and then dig into them warm with a dollop of ice cream if you prefer.

Notes: Of course you can use just normal bread instead of brioche. A day old bread would be ideal.
If you want to add dry fruits then scatter them along with the bread.
If you want a more cake like consistency, once you pour the milk mix on top of the bread, squash them all gently using your fingers and then bake.
The caramel sauce is purely optional, but it kinda adds to the whole butterscotch-y taste.
Apple slices, apricot, bananas etc can also be sliced and incorporated into the pudding.