Bread and Butter Pudding
You can make this nursery pud with slightly stale white bread or a fruit loaf. Even if I am using a fruit loaf I still add more raisins which I soak for a while in Sherry.
Put the raisins or sultanas in a saucepan with the Sherry (but you could use rum -
Sherry is what my Grandmother used!) and bring to simmering point, then
remove from heat and leave to soak for at least 30-40 mins. Heat the oven to
180°C (350°F). Butter a 1 1/2 litre oven proof dish, spread butter onto the slices of
bread, cut into triangles and arrange in the dish. Sprinkle the raisins, candied peel and grated nutmeg over the buttered slices. Keep any left over Sherry liquid aside. Beat the eggs, add the cream and whole milk mixture. Add the caster sugar and beat again. Add the remains of the Sherry. Pour the mixture over the slices and set aside for 30 mins or longer. Sprinkle with the demerara sugar and bake for about 35 mins until custard is just set and the top is golden. Serve warm with lashings of cream.
Theo Hodges
Theo Hodges was born in Kent. After a degree in Graphic Design she joined J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency as an Art Director working on accounts such as Rowntrees, Kraft and The Butter Council. While she was at University in Perugia, Italy she started collecting recipes from friends and family. In 1980 she set up her own design agency: Theo Hodges Design Consultants. For many years when they were young Theo, her sister and six cousins used to spend vacations at her Grandmother’s Victorian vicarage in Kent. ‘The thing about remembering childhood’ she says, is ‘there’s a whole lot of oblivion, and then out of it something floats up, quite sharp and clear. Many of the meals I can still see vividly and various recipes of mine were originally from Granny’s kitchen. ‘The kitchen garden was stuffed with raspberries, huge red dessert gooseberries, strawberries, runner beans, peas and much more with the hens in a shed at the back. But Granny only ate chicken breast and runner beans, followed by raspberries and Jersey cream - and therefore so did we. When raspberries were out of season, and in those days the season was much shorter, Granny made Victoria sponge cakes sandwiched with cream and home-made raspberry jam. On this limited but delicious diet we all thrived’. Theo’s mother was an excellent cook as well, and had been taught by the house- keeper at their house in Mougins, South of France. And once rationing was withdrawn in England in 1952 and good, fresh ingredients became available again, she amassed an enormous number of recipes which has formed the basis for Theo’s collection of family desserts.