Emiko Davies is one of my favourite food authors. This is a play on her MAGNIFICENT (I wasn't a bread and butter pudding convert until I made this one) Italian bread pudding (pinza di pane) that is in her current new book Cinnamon and Salt. I have changed it up using our white smyrna figs and sticky quince syrup. I hope you love it as much as I do.
Fig, Bread and Butter Pudding
Serves 10 and is easy to bake
Ingredients
250–300 g stale bread (I used a mix of sourdough and regular bread that was otherwise ready for the chooks)
2–3 cups warm full-cream milk (it depends on how dry your bread is, mine was dry and took the whole 3 cups)
1 cup sultanas or currants (currants are our favourite)
¼ cup sticky quince syrup or you can go boozy with rum or white wine
2 eggs
⅓ cup sugar
¼ cup butter, melted
1 tsp fennel seeds, bashed slightly in a mortar and pestle
zest of 1 orange and lemon
1 cup white smyrna dried figs, roughly chopped
Icing sugar for dusting (optional)
Method
- Tear or cut up the bread (I used crusts and all) and let it soak in warm milk until you can easily crumble or mash the bread – add more milk if needed, or leave overnight to soak.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a baking tin with butter and line with baking paper (I used a 23 cm square tin but a round tin or ceramic dish would work equally as well).
- While the bread is soaking, place the currants in a bowl to steep in the sticky quince syrup or alcohol.
- Stir the bread with its leftover milk with a wooden spoon (it should break up easily) until you have a dense batter.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together with the melted butter. Add the fennel seeds and zests.
- Fold the soaked bread bowl into the butter mixture until it is creamy and well combined.
- Add the currants and sticky syrup, the chopped figs and combine.
- Bake for 35–45 minutes, or until the pudding is golden brown and set. It should feel firm on top.
- Serve warm or cold, dusted with icing sugar before serving, if you wish. Keep any leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days.
You can find Emiko's original recipe also published here