A gloriously subtle dessert

I made Nicola Lamb's bread and butter pudding over Labor Day weekend. A very underrated dessert in my view, probably because the ingredients are so basic. I'd always assumed bread and butter pudding sprung up during world war two, lacking anything exotic as it does. But no, the first mention is almost 300 years ago.

I was a little concerned that I'd come up short on the custard. Quite a bit of the brioche was still poking above the custard when it went in the oven. But, as long as you make sure to soak it all when you dribble the custard on, it's fine. Better than fine. There's a really subtle citrus warmth there, with just a hint of cinnamon. I had to double check my initial observations....

For anyone who wants to run hard at the orange/cinnamon combo, Jamie Oliver's recipe is hard to beat. And for cook book collectors, Nicola Lamb's Sift should be on your list. It has a great "how-to" section, lots of experimentation on ratios, and recipe's organized by....how much time you have to bake!