Cheese Bread and Butter Pudding (Vegetarian)
Inspired --as I so often am-- both by Nigel Slater and my absolute dedication not to waste any food, I baked this delicious Cheese Bread and Butter Pudding. It is perfectly comforting on a grey, chill, foggy day like today, and Nigel is right about such a dish’s “soul-warming quality”! Happy Monday!
Ingredients (serves 2 to 4):
about 300 grams/9 ounces day-old bread (I used Sourdough Loaf and Rye Bread)
unsalted butter, softened
leftover cheeses (here we have 30 grams/1 ounce Roquefort, 15 grams/1/2 ounce Langres and 45 grams/1 1/2 ounce Cumin Gouda)
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1/4 Gewurztraminer (or other moelleux to sweet wine)
Generously butter a baking dish; set aside.
Preheat oven to 180°C/355°F.
Cut Sourdough Loaf and Rye Bread into slices and generously butter them on each side.
In the baking dish, arrange buttered Bread slices. Cut chosen cheeses into small chunks and scatter them, crumbling Roquefort of blue cheese if using any, in between and on top of buttered Loaf slices.
Whisk the eggs with salt and black pepper in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk in double cream, milk and Gewurztraminer wine, until well-blended. Pour egg mixture all over the bread and cheese. Generously grate Parmesan on top.
Place baking dish in the middle of the hot oven, and bake, at 180°C/355°F, for 30 minutes, until golden brown.
Remove from the oven, and scatter chopped Green Onion on top.
Serve Cheese Bread and Butter Pudding warm with a glass of chilled Gewurztraminer or good Tawny Port. If there’s any left, it would make a tasty breakfast or brunch on the morrow, with a nice cuppa!