Nigel Slater's Hot Cross Bread and Butter Pudding

Nigel Slater may not be too thrilled about my little Easter chick but I think he's cute.

I had the last two packs of cinnamon and raisin Hot Cross Buns, a purchase one Sunday from Waitrose on the M6, and just a few miles away from where Nigel was brought up.

Making hot cross buns and then cutting them up for bread and butter pudding, that's just one step too far......they very conveniently come in a pack of four.

A generous handful of sultanas were sprinkled over the buns, the recipe says to sprinkle over peel too - not for us though.  The custard base uses egg yolks instead of whole eggs, a pot of double cream and the equivalent in milk, which makes a glorious custard. I always freeze my left over egg whites for a meringue making session.

The two of us couldn't polish off all this pud by ourselves, it heats up perfectly in the microwave and my husband said it tasted even better the second day, and he should know, because he's a bread and butter pudding expert.

Taken from Nigel Slater - The Kitchen Diaries II - sadly I can't find a link out to the recipe.

I am entering this into Dish of the Month - March 2013. Hosts are Janice at Farmers Girl Kitchen and Sue at A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate.

Poachies - Egg Poaching Bags: Review

Poachies are a new product to help all of us who struggle to poach an egg using conventional methods.

The Poachie is an egg poaching bag made from paper. All you have to do is fill a saucepan threequarters full with water, bring to the boil then turn down until the water is gently bubbling. Simply take a drinking mug and place the opened Poachie bag into it, crack in the egg (preferably fresh), bring both of the flaps together to close the Poachie, place vertically into the water. Put the timer on for 5 minutes then remove the bag with a slotted spoon, and drain on a kitchen towel for a few moments. Remove the poached egg from the bag by shaking the bag gently.

The above is a brief overview of how to use the product. I'm not a poached egg eater and so had to rely on my husband to do the tastings. There is no need to put any vinegar in the water or swirl or twirl the water in the hope of producing a decent poached egg.

The recommended poaching time is 6 minutes but this produced an egg, which according to my husband, was like a hard boiled egg but minus the shell. Perhaps the water was boiling too vigorously, but a conventionally poached egg wouldn't take this long to cook. I also had to tear the bag away from the egg and shaking it wouldn't release the egg.

I cooked him another poached egg, but this time for 4 minutes, he said he was so used to eating poached eggs which tasted of vinegar he was missing his hit of vinegar. He wasn't sure I had cooked the egg very well. I still couldn't get the egg to slide out of the bag.

This weekend I bought some fresh eggs and made a granary loaf to serve the egg on. I decided to cook the egg for 5 minutes with the water gently bubbling, and the poached egg was perfect. I still couldn't get the egg to slide out of the bag, but the bag tears away easily and it didn't really seem to matter. As with a conventionally poached egg, it is always going to give a better result if the egg is fresh.  The poached egg in the photograph looks lovely and it isn't very often I have been able to say that.

My husband said 'I've cracked it' and he is looking forward to more well cooked poached eggs. Hard yolks, yolks that have separated from the whites, frothy eggs whites, poached egg pans should all now be history.......

The Poachies come in a pack of 20 poaching bags and there is a demonstration using the bags on the Poachies website.

Thank you Eleanor.