Is Bread and Butter Pudding Still Frugal?

BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING

Bread and butter pudding has always been a firm favourite of frugalers everywhere throughout many generations for the mere fact that it's nutritious, filling and uses up any leftover bread that may, otherwise, have been chopped and fed to the birds. Worse sti, there are many who would simply bin it!

 

Not so a frugaler! The remainder of a dry loaf can be adapted to many things, as per several previous posts - homemade French Bread style pizza, bread crumbs for Scotch Eggs, homemade croutons and, of course, pudding!

 

Being of frugal nature (or possibly forced into such a mode by circumstances dictated by failing finances) many of us bake all our own bread. whether by hand or by machine, it still has a crust and can go stale quicker than your ordinary, preservative filled, shop-bought soft loaf. Using it up at all stages is a must to avoid waste, so let's try for ultra-frugal bread and butter pudding.

 

Ingredients

Bread

Margarine or buttery spread(real butter's for special occasions)

Eggs (from the garden hens/ducks/quail)

Milk (we don't have a goat, so this was cheap UHT skimmed)

Sugar

Sultanas (cheaper than raisins at the mment)

Cinnamon & nutmeg (added luxury)

 

Method

Thinly slice the bread then lightly spread margarine on each slice.

Cut into smaller pieces and lay along the base of an ovenproof/microwave proof dish.

Sprinkle a layer of sultanas

I used a duck egg and 3 bantam eggs plus about a pint of milk and beat these together with about a tablespoon of sugar.

Pour some egg mix over bottom layer of bread then repeat the layers - I managed 3 layers

Allow the egg/milk mix to soak into all the bread - press it down into the mix if need be, just as long as it's all covered.

Sprinkle a lttle cinnamon, grated nutmeg and a little extra sugar for added flavour.

 

Cooking

Once your dish is filled and all the egg/milk mix absorbed by the bread, place the dish in the microwave. My microwave is rated 'D' at 700w, so I switched in on full for 5 minutes. I then removed the dish, sliced through the middle of the pudding, pressed it down and returned it to the microwave on full power for a further 2 minutes, which seemed to be enough to cook it through completely. Let it stand for a couple of minutes when you take it out the microwave, as it's still cooking at that point.

 

NB: Unlike the oven-baked variety, which takes about 45 minutes in a pre-heated oven, this frugal version of the pudding will not go golden brown or crispy on the top.

 

Your bread and butter pudding is now ready for eating and can be served with exra milk. If you thk about it, it has alost everything you could want in a tasty, filling meal, especially if you use wholemeal bread, which is what I normally make here. It has fibre, protein, calcium, fruit and you dont have to use sugar, you could easily substitute that with a thinly sliced banana or apple and perhaps a drizzle of honey. This is a great, easy, cheap recipe, even with sultanas costing £1 per bag. It should be sufficient for 4 servings and probably works out at less than £1 to make for twice the amount you'd get in a cheap, shop bought one but it is not frugal if you need to rush out and buy eggs, bread and spices purely on a whim while having a passing notion for good old-fashioned bread and butter pudding.

 

Frugaldom