A sprinkling of turbinado sugar on top of your pudding creates crunch to contrast with the soft, squidgy centre.
I always think that if I get past Christmas without gorging myself, I’ll be ok. But then comes endless January and I start baking.
A giant panettone recently sat on our kitchen counter for a few days: rich, eggy and studded with craggy chocolate chunks. And even though we kept shaving off slices throughout the day, it was so large that it appeared relatively undiminished until it got semi-stale and I got tired of looking at it.
The panettone bread pudding I made with it is a tweaked version of Nigella Lawson’s ginger jam bread pudding and it was, all modesty aside, absolutely perfect and what the British call ‘moreish’ in that you can’t stop eating it. Please try it as there is still so much winter left.
Panettone Bread Pudding
1/2 stick of butter
4 eggs
3 T granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup Sultana raisins
1/2 cup rum
Enough leftover panettone to slice and fill a 1 /12 litre casserole or baking dish (approx 10 slices)
700 ml total of milk and cream (I used 500 ml of 10% table cream with 200 ml of skim milk because that’s what we had)
1 Tbs turbinado sugar for sprinkling over top
Method
Preheat the oven to 375º F.
Gently heat up a quarter cup of raisins covered in rum on a medium low stove or microwave for a minute.
Butter a 1 1/2 quart casserole (I used an old cornflower pattern Corningware dish because it retains heat perfectly and it is a scientifically proven fact that using your mother’s old Corningware dishes makes everything taste better) and then slice a quarter of a large panettone into 1 inch thick triangular slices. You can thinly butter each slice as well to add to the richness. Don’t butter too lavishly as you can easily go overboard and you will be dotting the whole affair with butter anyway before it goes into the oven.
Into a bowl, place your cream/milk mixture along with four beaten eggs, the vanilla extract and three tablespoons of sugar and set aside.
Start placing your panettone slices standing up into your buttered baking dish. You can alternate pointy end down with pointy end up to give some texture to the top of your assembly. (If you quartered your panettone vertically before slicing you get pointy slices and if I could draw I would draw an illustration for you, but just picture cutting your panettone into giant wedges like it’s a cake.)
At this point remove your raisins from the stove where hopefully they have plumped up nicely in all that rum. Scatter them between your bread slices and on top. You want raisins all the way through this dish, not just on top.
You can also pack in any stray chunks of panettone throughout the final mix. It doesn’t have to look too tidy. It’s going to soon be drowned by the milk and egg mixture anyway. Just fill in any large gaps if you feel so inclined. This is a very loose ‘do it however you like’ recipe.
Pour the milk/cream/egg mixture over top making sure to soak ever area and then allow it a few minutes to absorb into the panettone. You can push the panettone down a bit with a clean hand to submerge it a bit if you need to.
Dot the top with a divided tablespoon of butter if you choose and then sprinkle your turbinado sugar evenly across the surface. This will add a wonderfully crunchy top to contrast with your pudding’s soft and yielding interior.
Put your (uncovered!) casserole or pudding dish on a cookie sheet, place on the centre rack of the oven and bake for 45 minutes, but do peek in starting at the 35 minute mark. If your oven heats unevenly, give your dish a 180 degree rotation after 20 minutes or so but it’s not really necessary. This is a sturdy pudding, not delicate piecrust.
Remove from the oven after 45 minutes by which time it should be nicely browned and puffed up. (Sadly though, it will sink in the centre as it cools.) I would say wait until it does cool before serving, but why? If you are only sharing it with family, then to heck with societal norms and just stand over the stove with a giant spoon and dig in while it’s still hot. Melted chocolate is the best chocolate.