Jam roly poly bread and butter pudding

This dessert is a show stopper – it’s the sort of dessert people have to eat more of even if they’re about to burst at the seams! The bonus for you is that all the prep can be done an hour or so in advance and the only real skill involved is slicing bread. It’s the perfect winter warmer for this rotten weather we’re all currently enduring.

Although I describe in the recipe below how to slice the bread I think it’s a good example of a picture being worth a thousand words. Here’s what your loaf needs to end up looking like:

Then slice thus:

The name tells you everything; it really is a combination of two of the best desserts ever! Personally, I find some bread and butter puddings can get a little greasy, but the addition of the jam in this dish stops that happening. Each slice of bread produces two rolls:

We’re all looking for shortcuts in the kitchen; sometimes I don’t sift flour (I know! I’m a rebel!) but one shortcut you should never take is failing to sieve uncooked custard – it will always have eggy lumps in it. See what I mean?

The finishing touch to the dessert is the sprinkling of sugar before putting the dish in the oven to bake; please don’t forget this or decided not to do it as it provides the most delicious sweet crust. The CCB (Caked Crusader’s Brother) requested a dessert made purely of the sugary crusts – they are that good!

The first time I served this I prepared extra custard (Mr CC is a custard addict) but it doesn’t need it at all. The baked custard soufflés up around the bread and provides soft creaminess. Any left over pud can be covered with foil and reheated when required...but I don’t think it will hang around for that long, to be honest!

If you only make one recipe from my site this year…this could be the one to pick!

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter, at room temperature – it needs to be soft
1 jar (approx 350g) raspberry jam
1 large fresh white loaf – uncut (it will weigh about 800g and it’s best to choose a sandwich type loaf that has a nice flat top)
4 eggs
400ml double cream
400ml milk
85g caster sugar, plus extra to sprinkle on top
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Butter a 2 litre baking dish – I used a disposable tin tray to save on washing up (I bought mine in Tesco for £1.50)

Spoon about a third of the jar of jam into the bottom of the tray and spread it around.

Using a large serrated bread knife, cut the crusts off the loaf (you can blitz these in the food processor and freeze the crumbs to use in another recipe).

Cut the bread into four long slices i.e. not the way you would slice a loaf to make sandwiches – this is the only slightly tricky part of the process as, without the crust, the bread loses it’s stability. I found that gentle swipes of the knife did the job better than trying to saw through it heavy-handedly.

Butter one side of each slice of the bread.

Turn the slice over and spread the remaining jam on the bread.

Roll up each slice like a swiss roll – I used the bread knife to help lift the buttery bread from my work surface.

Cut each swiss roll through so that you now have 8 dumpy little swiss rolls.

Arrange them in the baking dish jam cut side up so that they look pretty.

Whisk together the eggs, cream, milk, sugar and vanilla.

Hold a sieve above the dish containing the swiss rolls and ladle the custard – through the sieve – into the dish. Ladle some over the rolls so that the bread can absorb the custard. You must sieve the custard as there will be eggy lumps in it.

Depending on the depth of your dish you may not be able to get all the custard in straight away – if this is the case, leave the rolls to absorb the custard then return 20 minutes later and add the remaining custard.

Leave the dish to stand for 30 minutes before baking – this is to give the custard plenty of time to seep into the bread and make it moist and creamy. It wouldn't matter if you let it stand for longer.

Preheat the oven to 160˚C/fan oven 140˚C/320˚F/gas mark 3.

Scatter 2-3 tablespoons of caster sugar over the top of the rolls.

Bake for 1 – 1 ¼ hours but check after an hour – it’s ready when the custard is set and the dessert has a golden brown look to it.

Serve one roll per portion with the surrounding custard – it cuts nicely into squares.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

Eat.