[The Tongue Never Forgets] Bread and Butter Pudding (UK)

Among the many British desserts and sweets, this is one that ranks high on my list of favorites. It is a traditional dessert that most British people love and could even be called a national dish, yet I suspect many Japanese travelers finish their trips to the UK without ever trying the authentic version.

Originally a home-cooked dish, this recipe was born out of the need to reuse stale bread, so it only uses ingredients that are always kept in the kitchen. If you have buttered bread, sugar, raisins, eggs, and milk, you can whip it up in no time. For those who have never tried it, is it easy to imagine it as French toast packed tightly into a large baking tray and baked in the oven? It is a way for bread that has gone a bit stale over time to be reborn as a delicious dessert.

In the UK, bread and butter pudding is eaten with warm custard sauce poured over it after it is baked. This custard sauce is a little different from the custard we Japanese know. It is not the custard cream found in cream puffs, but a sauce-like consistency. While the ingredients are the same, it is not a cream, but a much thinner sauce. In restaurants, it is often flavored with whiskey or rum, making it a dessert that adults love as well.

When making it at home, many people use instant custard powder. A fair number of affordable cafes and cafeterias use it as well. Because it can be made simply by adding warmed milk and sugar to the powder, it is one of the instant products that the British love. Using such instant products without hesitation is quite British, and it is one of the reasons why I love the UK.

By the way, there is a similarly named dish called bread pudding. They are often confused, but the preparation and texture are different. While they both use stale bread, in bread pudding, the bread is torn into small pieces, soaked in water or milk, and then other ingredients like dried fruit are added. The bread is then mashed and mixed before being poured into a large tray and baked in the oven, so there is zero 'French toast' feel to it. The cross-section looks like a loaf of bread, and the texture is chewy and dense. This is also often eaten with custard sauce or vanilla ice cream.

When you travel to the UK, it is fun to try both and compare them. I am a fan of the wobbly Bread and Butter Pudding.