Le pudding

Richard Bertinet: Member of public

We used to make this in the bakery when I was an apprentice, using all the leftover bits of bread, cake, croissant, pain aux raisins and pain au chocolat. I suppose it's the French version of bread and butter pudding, but more dense and very more-ish. You need a good mix of leftover bread and patisserie. Leave to cool and eat as a snack or serve as a pudding with sticky toffee sauce.

Ingredients: serves 6

Pudding:

500 g leftover bread (croissants or other similar bakery products)
300 g ready made custard
50 - 100 g sultanas
4-5 tbsp rum
butter (for greasing)

Sauce:

125 g butter
50 g dark brown sugar
2 tbsp cream (or creme fraiche)
50 g orange segments (sliced)

Method:

Pudding:

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4.
Put all the stale bread etc into a food processor with a paddle or whisk attachment and switch on to a slow speed until crumbed but still quite rough. Crumble by hand if you do not have a food processor.
Transfer to a bowl and add the custard, sultanas and rum and mix to a creamy stodge. Line a deep tray with lightly buttered baking paper and pile in the mixture, but don't smooth it too much on top, since you want it to be nice and crisp, with uneven peaks.
Bake for 35-45 minutes until crisp and golden on top. Cut into chunks and make the sauce.

Sauce:

For the sauce, put the butter in a small pan and melt over a low heat. Add the sugar, bring to the boil and then remove from the heat. Stir in the cream and add the sliced orange segments or sliced qumquats.

Recipe tips:

Cakes and pastries are best stored in a covered box or suitable container, out of direct sunlight.