The new controversially-rated film, Paddington, (the BBFC bizarrely recently classified it as a PG...) featuring a selection of British acting royalty and Ben Whishaw as the voice of the famous bear is released in UK cinemas today. Given the fact that I sadly don't have time to watch it on the opening weekend, I thought I'd do a spot of Paddington-themed baking instead and put a trip to the cinema at the top of my to-do list for next week.
Everyone knows Paddington loves marmalade almost as much as Pooh loves honey, and it's the time of year when there's nothing better than curling up on the sofa with a bowl of steaming hot pudding. It therefore seemed like a bit of a no brainer to play around with good old-fashioned bread and butter pudding and give it a cheeky Paddington twist.
I managed to unearth a jar of Seville orange marmalade from the back of a cupboard and found this recipe for a Marmalade & Whisky Bread & Butter Pudding on the BBC Good Food website. Paddington has been so well received thus far that critics are raving about it, and the general consensus is that grown ups will love it as much as children - hence why I've tried out a recipe that has the option to include whisky, turning a childhood favourite into a truly grown-up dessert if so desired.
The original recipe can be found on the BBC Good Food website here, but it's also below with my notes and photographs. Apologies for the poor quality pictures: the lighting in winter is making photographing recipes more and more difficult!
Ingredients:
8 slices day-old white bread
50g very soft butter
4 tablespoons Seville orange marmalade, plus 4 teaspoons
300ml full-fat milk
248ml pot double cream
3 large eggs
1 vanilla pod, seeds
4 tbsp golden caster sugar
1 tbsp whisky (optional)
Icing sugar, for dusting
Method:
Cut the crusts off each slice of bread and butter each piece on both sides. Then spread 4 with 1 tablespoon of marmalade each. Pop the remaining bread on top to make 4 marmalade sandwiches: how very Paddington Bear indeed!
Grease a large baking dish. Cut the marmalade sandwiches into triangles and nestle in rows in a large baking dish.
Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Beat the milk, cream, eggs, vanilla, sugar and whisky (if using) together.
Pour over the bread and leave to soak for 30 minutes.
Dot the remaining marmalade all over the top of the pudding and dust with the icing sugar.
Bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until puffy and starting to caramelise where the bread breaks out of the custard.
It's best to serve this pretty much as soon as it comes out of the oven as the pudding sinks quite quickly and it looses the impressive, puffed up effect. If you prefer your bread and butter puddings cold, just leave to one side to cool and then chill in the fridge.
As far as pudding's go it's not too shabby!
The response to this Paddington Pudding has been overwhelmingly positive, with the only main criticism being that there just isn't enough marmalade. In the future, I'll definitely add more than just 1 tablespoon to each marmalade sandwich, and I'll make sure to dot more over the top at the end. Also, if you want to make the whole thing extremely orangey, then adding the zest of an orange to the custard might help infuse the flavour through the pudding more effectively.
So there's my take on a classic British pudding with a Paddington theme! Do let me know if there's a certain variation of Bread & Butter Pudding that you love (I also have a chocolate one here) as I love experimenting with different flavours. Also, I'm very keen to hear any thoughts on Paddington - does it live up to the hype?!
*Paddington is in UK cinemas now*
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