Chocolate and Orange Makes Bread and Butter Pudding.

Bread and Butter Pudding. Not something, I’m afraid, that usually gets my juices flowing. It’s stupid really, because I think bread is brilliant and butter, even better. But b&b pud just isn’t usually the one for me. I’d take sticky toffee any day. But when you have a bread making disaster and therefore a loaf going spare....needs must.

And how do you make a boring pudding a ‘juices flowing’ one? Throw chocolate and orange at it of cooooourse.

OO, just as I wrote that I realised that I have the exact same thoughts towards French toast. It must be an eggy bready thing. And what cured my distaste of that particular breakfast treat? Why chocolate and orange obv. Maybe I should try it with chickpeas too, my food nemesis. Then I’d be totally cured.

Because here, what’s not to like? Squishy and chewy bread, sweet, chocolate-ey custard and little nuggets of sunshiney orange. Not exactly a light and airy dessert option but perfect for those days when only the carby-est of concoctions will do. Like, um, all the May days that tantalise with sun and trick with hail and gails. Soooo right now then. With Love and Cake.

Chocolate and Orange Bread and Butter Pudding.

A few notes:

• To be honest, if I made this again I'd double up on the quantity of custard for the same amount of bread- just for a little bit of extra goo, but I'll give you the quantities I actually used.
• This is a great way to use up bread that's past it's best, in fact the dryer the better, for soaking up the chocolatey, eggy goodness.
• As always, feel free to freestyle a bit. Dark chocolate would be divine, and you could absolutely leave out the orange...how about replacing it with a shot or two of rummmm......

Serves 6ish

You will need

a large oven proof dish, lightly greased

around 3/4 loaf of good quality white bread, cut into 2 cm cubes

Juice of 2 oranges

300ml double cream

2 egg yolks

180g milk chocolate, finely chopped

150g candied orange peel, finely chopped

1 tbsp chocolate chips

icing sugar for dusting

• So first job is to get the oven on to preheat at 180°c.
• Then tumble the cubes of bread into your oven dish and pour over the orange juice so the bread gets a chance to soak it all up.
• Next job...pop the cream into a saucepan and heat slowly until just simmering.
• Meanwhile whisk the egg yolks in a bowl until lighter in colour and thickened.
• When the cream is ready, pour it in a slow, steady stream over the egg yolks, whisking all the time.
• Add the chocolate and peel into the custard and stir so that the chocolate melts.
• Transfer the chocolate custard back into the saucepan and heat slllooooowly for a few minutes, stirring all the time, so the custard thickens a teeny bit.
• Pour the custard over the bread. Mix everything around a bit and poke 'sticking out bits' of bread back in so everything gets a good soak.
• Pop the dish in the oven and bake for 25 minutes until firm and bubbling round the edges.
• When the pud has cooled a bit, sprinkle over the chocolate chips and dust with icing sugar through a sieve.
• Viola...it's carb o clock.