Sour cherry bread and butter pudding

As promised yesterday on my instagram post of this delicious pudding here are the details! It won’t be an exact recipe as such as I just kind of threw it together. It all started with an extra crop of sour cherries from the tree in the garden. Plenty of cherry and coconut jam was made but then the jars ran out so we had to come up with another use for these red beauties.

For this recipe I used brown bread. Here in Germany you can get some really good dark gluten free bread which I’m not sure you would be able to get in the UK or elsewhere so go with whatever you can find. I generally find that white gluten free bread goes too gloopy in this recipe and I quite like some nutty bits to chew on. Below is my current favourite brown loaf I can get in Germany if you can find it get some its very tasty.

So first of all grease an oven proof tin or bowl and then butter some slices of bread. If you are using a square loaf cut the slices across the diagonal and line up your buttered pieces in your tin. Next stone your cherries I can highly recommend a stoner it makes everything so much quicker! Pop them in a pan with some sugar to your taste, I like then to still be quite tart but it is up to you. Bring them to the boil then stir thoroughly to make sure the sugar has dissolved. Next spoon the cherries over your bread making sure to drop some down in between each of the slices. Let it sit while you make the custard mix so the bread starts to soak up the juices. For the custard heat some milk in a pan with a splash of vanilla essence just until it is warmed through no need to boil. I used about a pint. In a separate bowl or jug whisk together three eggs and a couple of spoons of sugar again to your taste depending on how sweet your tooth is! Add the warmed milk and whisk constantly to combine the eggs. Pour all of this loveliness over the top of your bread and cherries. Using a folk gently press down each slice of bread so it soaks up the custard. Finally sprinkle over some sliced almonds and bake at a medium heat for about forty minutes, basically until the custard sets. If you notice the top catching and going too brown place some foil over the top for the rest of the cooking time.

Take out of the oven and leave for a few minutes as it will be like molten for a little while and no one wants to burn their mouths! Serve whilst still warm for the best results but I can confirm it is still rather good cold the next day as you can see below it is keeping me company whilst I write this!

I can say with confidence this is the BEST bread and butter pudding I have ever tasted. It is juicy and moist with a bit of a tang all rolled into one it feels very luxurious. I am sure if you don’t have a cherry tree you could easily buy a tin and go from there either way I highly recomend you have a go!