Who can resist an orange-flavoured pudding that reminds them of childhood, with a touch of Cointreau for the grown ups? Not us, that’s for sure.
Ingredients
- 1 cup of sultanas, raisins or currants ( we use a mix)
- 60 mis (1/4 cup) Cointreau or Grand Marnier
- 50g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
- 250g (about 1/2 a loaf) of rustic white bread, cut into 1 1/2 cm slices
- 170g (1/4 cup) Seville or cumquat marmalade
- 8 eggs
- 500ml (2 cups) milk
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 220g (1 cup) caster sugar, plus 1 tbs extra, to sprinkle
Method
Toss the dried fruit with the Cointreau or Grand Marnier and allow to stand, ideally for a few hours or even overnight.
Preheat oven to 180°C and grease a 2 L casserole dish.
Butter each slice of bread generously, smearing every second one with marmalade and lay over base of prepared casserole pan, overlapping a little as you go. When you have one layer, sprinkle over some dried soaked fruit, then continue layering until you’ve used all the bread and dried soaked fruit. I put the crust-side up when it overlaps, so it pokes up and bakes crisp, but it doesn’t really matter.
To make the custard, place the eggs, milk, vanilla essence and sugar together in a bowl, whisking to combine.
Pour the custard over the bread until all of the bread is moistened. You want to have the bread wet, but not so wet that it’s soupy. Allow to stand for 10 minutes to soak up custard. The ideal level of custard after a few minutes is just below the top of the bread. Sprinkle with extra sugar and bake for 45 minutes or until the custard has firmed right to the centre. Serve pudding warm or at room temperature.