Eggy bready pudding with rhubarb compote

Presenter, writer, and all round top foodie Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is passionate about how thoughtful and creative cooking can save money and cut down on the food we needlessly throw away.

"This is really a bread and butter pudding done with breadcrumbs instead of slices of bread, and it’s much easier to make. You can serve it, like rice pudding, with jam (very tart jams such as plum or raspberry are best) - or, best of all, with stewed/roasted rhubarb or plums.

Serves four to six.

Download Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstal’s Eggy bready pudding with rhubarb compote recipe - PDF (340k)

Ingredients

• 50g unsalted butter

• 250ml whole milk

• 150ml double cream

• Two whole eggs

• Two egg yolks

• 75g caster sugar

• 125g coarse, slightly stale white breadcrumbs

For the rhubarb compote

• 750g rhubarb, trimmed and cut into short (four to five cm) lengths

• Juice of one orange

• 85g caster sugar

Method

Make the compote first: preheat the oven to 160°C/gas 3. Put the rhubarb in an oven dish. Scatter over the orange juice and sugar and gently mix the whole lot together. Cover loosely with foil and roast for 30-45 minutes, or until tender, giving it a gentle stir halfway through. Leave to cool.

Now make the pudding. First, grease a small oven dish with butter. Combine the milk and cream in a saucepan. Bring to just below simmering point then remove from heat. Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and 60g of the sugar together in a bowl, then add the hot milk and cream into the egg mixture and whisk to form a custard.

Stir about 75g of the breadcrumbs into the custard and leave to soak for half an hour so the crumbs plump up.

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.

Spoon the custard-breadcrumb mixture into the buttered dish.

Melt the remaining butter and combine it with the remaining breadcrumbs and 15g of sugar. Scatter this mixture over the pudding in the dish. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden and just set but with a bit of wobble left in the middle then serve hot with the compote."