Hot cross bun bread and butter pudding

I used to think I hated bread and butter pudding. Stale bread in custard? No thank you. But that was before I actually made one for myself. It must have been about seven years ago – I was cooking my way through the Nigella Bites cookbook (which contains one of my families all time favourites, ham in Coca-Cola) when I came across her ginger jam bread and butter pudding. It did look pretty inviting. I decided to give it a go and I would take it round to my mum-in-law – who had a bit of a sweet tooth like myself so I knew she would appreciate a home made bread and butter pudding!
So I made it and when it was ready I covered the top of the dish in foil and walked the short distance to her home. We ended up having a lovely afternoon, chatting and sharing the bread and butter pudding that we both agreed was delicious. It was sweet, comforting and I loved the contrast between the crispy bits on top and the custard soaked bread in the middle that melted in your mouth. It was dreamy. So this evening when I was making this pudding, I couldn’t help but think of my lovely mum-in-law in heaven and smile. I do miss our putting the world to right chats while sharing something home baked.
This recipe is a delicious way of using up stale hot cross buns. I used the chocolate orange buns I made last week so I continued with that theme by adding chocolate chips, orange zest and orange marmalade.
If you have normal hot cross buns and don’t want to go down the chocolate orange route, then you could easily omit the orange zest and add 1/2 tsp vanilla extract instead and use apricot or raspberry jam for making the “sandwiches”

Hot cross bun bread and butter pudding
6 stale hot cross buns
100g chocolate chips
100g soft butter
About 25-50g Orange marmalade
50g caster sugar
3 large eggs
250ml milk
100ml double cream
The zest of one orange
50g Demerara sugar for the top, optional
2 tbsp Orange marmalade or apricot jam, warmed in a small pan
Slice the hot cross buns in half and spread with the butter and marmalade. Arrange the hot cross bun sandwiches in a baking dish. Sprinkle over some of the chocolate chips. Repeat until all of the buns are sitting snugly inside the dish.
In a jug mix together the eggs, sugar, milk, cream and the orange zest. Slowly pour this over the bun slices. Cover with foil and leave to soak for a minimum of 15 minutes or a maximum of 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 180C. Sprinkle the top of the pudding with Demerara sugar, if using and bake for 30-40 minutes with the foil on. Remove from the oven and brush the top with the warmed marmalade. Return to the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Serve with softly whipped double cream, ice cream or custard.
I don’t know why I ever thought I wouldn’t like bread and butter pudding. Warm from the oven with softly whipped cream, it’s like a hug in a bowl.

*I updated this post and the pictures 2nd April 2018. Original picture is below!
April 2018 – I shared this updated post over at Hijacked by twins for #CookBlogShare