Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding

 

Today I went to see Saving Mr Banks.  It is the mostly true story (fictionalised somewhat), set in 1961, of Walt Disney persuading P.L. Travers to allow Disney to make the Mary Poppins movie.  I enjoyed it thoroughly for all sorts of reasons, including the insight into the early life of P.L. Travers, how the Mary Poppins stories came about, and why the movie is titled as it is.  I got a buzz of excitement near the start of the movie to see the names of many places that I have been to in Queensland appearing on a train timetable, including the name of my home town.  It's not often that you'd see that in a Hollywood movie!  I also loved watching the very fine acting by both the well known actors and Annie Rose Buckley, who played P.L. Travers as a girl.  We learn some curious tidbits throughout the film, including that P.L. Travers had an aversion to pears and the colour red. 

It is interesting how P.L. Travers, like another famous Queenslander born the same year, Florence Broadhurst, reinvented herself and her past so that those not in the know would never suspect her real origins.  Like Florence, P.L. Travers appears not to have been the most genial of personalities, and even the very powerful Walt Disney had a difficult time persuading Mrs Travers, as she preferred to be known, to give him the film rights to Mary Poppins.

Back to the more mundane world of my kitchen.  I had a loaf of Vienna bread that was taking up valuable real estate in my tiny freezer, so I decided to make it into bread and butter pudding to reclaim the space.  I chose Donna Hay's Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding from p146 of Modern Classics II, which is not the same as the online version on Donna's website.  It uses milk, not cream, more bread and no currants.  The end result is quite pleasing - here's a peek inside:

I didn't remove the crusts from the bread, although the recipe calls for it.  I thought the crusts added some texture and crunch.  The custard is light and binds the bread together well enough that I could cut the pudding into squares for transport afterwards.

To make this pudding you will need:

10 slices bread, crusts removed (or not)
butter (I used margarine)
marmalade
3 cups milk
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
extra sugar for sprinkling on top

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius (I used 180 degrees).  Spread 5 slices of bread with butter and 5 slices with marmalade, and create sandwiches with one slice each of buttered bread and jammy bread.  cut the sandwiches into three, then layer them in a 4 cup oven proof dish.

Put the milk, eggs, vanilla and sugar into a bowl and whisk to combine.  Pour this mixture over the bread and let it stand for 3 minutes.  Sprinkle extra sugar on top of the pudding.

Put the pudding into a baking tray, and fill the tray with hot water until it comes half way up the sides of the pudding dish.  Place the pudding in the baking tray into the preheated oven and bake for one hour and five minutes.  Remove the baked pudding from the oven, remove it from the baking tray, and allow it to cool for 5 minutes before serving warm - alone or with cream or icecream.  I chilled it and cut it into slices for sharing.