It is time for picking the last of my rhubarb now. I rarely pull rhubarb past the end of July. This helps it preserve it’s energy and produce a good crop next year. We have lots bagged and frozen, and made a jam with ginger, and so we decided to make one of our favourite recipes, rhubarb bread pudding.
This rhubarb bread pudding recipe is one that my gran used to make during the war. The family lived on the same street and would combine their rations to give more variety to their meals. It is therefore frugal as it was made using as few of the rations as possible. It was my first introduction to rhubarb and is a great way of using up stale bread.
This recipe isn’t frugal any more as eggs are so expensive. I therefore sometimes cheat by using a spoonful of custard powder rather than the eggs (and a bit more milk). I also make it cheaper by using whole milk and diluting it. You might want to make half this recipe as this makes a lot. We tend to bulk make it and freeze it.
Ingredients
8 slices of bread, cubed and toasted, crusts and all.
1.5 cups of milk
0.25 cup of unsalted butter
3 cups of chopped rhubarb
1.5 cups of sugar
4 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla essence.
Pinch of salt
Demerara sugar to sprinkle on top.
Method
1. Heat the oven to 175⁰C
2. Grease a large dish/tin (8″ square is ok if the bread is thin but I prefere it with thick bread and so use a bigger one).
3. Put the toasted cubes in the dish.
4. Heat the milk until it bubbles at the sides and then add the butter to the sauce pan, turn off the heat, and stir until the butter has melted. Leave to cool for about 10 mins.
5. In a bowl stir the rhubarb, sugar, vanilla, salt and cinnamon together, and add the eggs. Mix well.
6. When the milk is cool, put into the rhubarb mixture and mix thoroughly..
7. Pour this mixture over the cubed toast, mix it all up to ensure coverage, and leave to soak for 15 mins. If your bread has been really thick and there is no spare liquid in the bottom of the dish (just a bit) when you first pour it in, you can always whisk up some more cold milk, egg and vanilla and add it. I press it down now and again to make sure the liquid is absorbed.
8. Sprinkle with the demerara sugar. I use about a quarter of a cup as it makes the top nice and crunchy. Place in the oven to cook.
9. Take it out when it is golden and set. I over did mine as I was try to batch bake other things at the same time and got distracted. 🙄. It still tasted lovely.
I store mine in a tin for a few days, and freeze it, but it is best eaten the same day. Mr S loves it. It can go a bit soggy after the first day, but is still nice to eat. To make it taste even better we tend to air fry pieces if they have been frozen, or in a tin. It gets back it’s crunchy texture and only needs 30 seconds. This dessert is nice, tasty, and filling, and a great way to use up a glut of bread from Olio, or a waste food project. I got 12 good sized pieces from this recipe. I like the crunchy texture of it with the bread being toasted. The piece pictured is a half of the size that I cut them. It then serves both of us if I freeze them for winter.
it is pictured with my sweet potato brownie, a recipe that I will add soon.
If you press bread and butter pudding it will take you to another great, frugal dessert to use up that stale bread.
We have lots of foraged apples, picked today, and so I am going to try making this with apple, and triple the amount of cinnamon next time. 😊
