Panettone bread & butter pudding with chocolate chunks & Orange…Nice !

Its into the new year & the christmas tree has been put away for another year, the cards are in the recycling bag & those strange gifts people bought you from BHS that  they thought were funny at the time and thought you would appreciate have been packed away in a carrier bag marked “charity shop” ( ie a miniature hip flask with Peter Kayes face on or a plastic reindeer that passes chocolate raisins out of its bottom, *sighs*)

But one thing people might find left over is a Panettone, which people often buy you but you never buy yourself. A Panettone is a traditional Italian bread which is more like a cake, it is studded with grappa soaked fruits and is a favourite of mine. They come in marvelous boxes or bagged up, tied with ribbon, but are normally neglected by people and stuffed at the back of a cupboard until found well past its sell by date and then put out for the birds.

But not in our house. We were fortunate to have a lovely one bought for us by friends this year and as well as being served up with a nice italian coffee, you can make a very sexy bread & butter pudding

So heres my recipe …if you have one of these delightful breads give it ago, if not you can use this recipe using ordinary crusty white bread  or even brioche with a sprinkling of brandy soaked raisins.

enjoy

This recipe will make enough for a large deep 12-14  rectangular dish enough for 10 people to get a nice big portion each.

YOU WILL NEED:

A large deep baking dish

A hand whisk

A nice glass of your favourite italian red wine

Ennio Morricone playing in the background

An invite to a dinner party so you can take it a long and become the star of the show

INGREDIENTS:

for the egg custard-

6 medium eggs + 1 yolk

500ml single cream

500ml full fat milk

180g castor sugar

1 Vanilla pod or 3 teaspoons vanilla essence

The rest-

200g melted butter

2oog castor sugar

300g dark chocolate broken into pieces or chocolate buttons

zest and juice of 1 large orange

And most importantly your Panattone.

METHOD GALLERY :

First of all pre-heat your oven too 180c

VARIATIONS:

Instead of icing sugar this dish is also nice brushed with Apricot jam heated up in a pan…or even better some tangy orange Marmalade !

Its best eaten hot or can be served cold like a cake if you wish; I prefer it warm with creme fraiche but goes with most things like vanilla ice cream or even fresh cream whipped with a bit of Amaretto whisked in…lovely

© The cake-shaker