Raglan Road: Ger’s Bread & Butter Pudding

Butter an ovenproof dish. Remove crust from bread; butter on both sides and cut into quarters.

Arrange layers of bread in triangles overlapping slightly in bottom of dish. Sprinkle in raisins and cover with another layer of bread slices. Keep excess bread slices for use later and gently press down with a spatula.

To make the custard, heat the cream and milk until it almost comes to a boil and remove from heat.

Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a large heatproof bowl and set over pan of simmering water until thick. Remove from heat and add in cream mixture. Pour 2/3 of this custard over layered bread. Let stand for 30 minutes or until bread has soaked up the custard.

Heat oven to 350ºF. Pour remaining custard over soaked bread and arrange remaining bread slices on top. Press down gently with spatula so the custard comes halfway up the bread slices.

Bake for 30 minutes until custard is just set and top is golden brown.

Serve hot and top with sauce of choice.

Heat the cream and vanilla bean on the stove until it almost starts to boil. Meanwhile combine the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk well.

When the cream reaches the almost boiling point, turn off and remove the pot from the flame. Temper the yolks, by ladling a small amount of cream to the bowl and mixing well. Add the yolk sugar mixture to the cream, whisk well so that it does not curdle. Place over a low flame for 2 minutes whisking until it starts to thicken. Strain and allow to cool at room temperature.

Combine the sugar and butter in pot and cook over a medium high flame.

Whisk well to combine, when sugar is melted and it starts to boil turn off the stove, remove from the flame and whisk in the cream to combine. Allow to cool to room temperature.