Nan's bread pudding

If like me you can't bear throwing away food, then this is great for using up bits of stale bread, and tastes amazing, Save all your loaf ends up in the freezer until you have enough.
This is easy peasy and takes minutes to make, children will love doing this and no skill required, and counts as one of your 5 a day!

You will need:

500g ish of Stale bread-white or brown-wholemeal
500 g dried fruit-I used mixed, sultans or raisins are fine-whatever you have.
120 g melted butter
130 g sugar-light brown is best, but not essential
500-600 ml of milk
2 large eggs beaten
3/4 pot of ground mixed spice ( I like a lot of spice, ,most recipes will state 1TBSP, go by your own taste)
Good pinch salt
Demerera sugar for topping to add crunch.

You could add some Lemon and or orange peel  for an extra zing, I prefer it with a plain traditional flavour.


Break all the bread up roughly in a large mixing bowl, add the fruit sugar, spice, salt, and milk and squidge up with your hands until well combined, then add the eggs and butter and combine again. set aside for 10 mins to let the mixture soak in.

Set oven to Gas 4-180 c-350 f

Grease and line a 12 inch square cake tin,or Pyrex dish, and add the mixture, smooth down into the corners and sprinkle with the demerera sugar. Bake for 11/2 hours, if the mix starts to burn on the top add a sheet of foil, about half way through cooking time.

Once cooked let it cool in the dish for 15 mins then turn out whole onto a wire rack and let it cool completely, then peel off the greaseproof paper,cut into squares and pop into the fridge in an airtight container. It keeps for ages.-Not here though ;)

Just the smell of this baking takes me back to my paternal nan's kitchen, she had a never ending supply of bread pudding, I liked a big chunk straight out of her fridge, much nicer cold!

Makes a good lunchbox filler.

Give it a go!