Spiced Bread Pudding

My mum has a folder stuffed full of my Grandma's old recipes containing, among other things,  hand written notes, articles neatly clipped from newpapers and those booklets which came free with 1950s electric ovens. I was looking through it recently and came across this one for Spiced Bread Pudding, something I remember my Grandma baking for us as a child, something I loved to eat. I get a thrill out of finding old recipes - especially if they come with some kind of history or memory - as I think that the ones which have been kept and passed on tend to both taste good and work. 

This piece of paper makes me smile and think of Grandma straight away. It smells of her house. It's covered in cooking splatters. It was obviously a favourite recipe, as she took the time to type it out, and the typed print feels as warm and familiar to me as her own handwriting. 

Can you see the watermark? Can you even buy watermarked paper, or Queen's Velvet paper, these days I wonder?

I baked it recently and was over the moon to find that it worked, and that it tastes excatly as I remember it. It's moist, sweet, nutmeggy and very delicious. This is not a pudding really but a tray bake kind of cake, and bears little resemblance to Bread and Butter Pudding (the kind where you butter the bread and then bake it in a custard in the oven which I don't really like if I'm honest, it's too eggy and bland.) This is more like a dense, sweet fruit cake. I've typed out the recipe here, tweaking it. I like it with more spices than Grandma did, I think all that bread needs the flavour, and sultanas are always my dried fruit of choice as they're so plump and sweet.

8 oz or 230 grams stale brown bread, say 5 or 6 slices.

¾ pint or 425 ml milk.

2 oz or 60 grams butter.

2 oz or 60 grams brown sugar.

5 oz sultanas, currants or any kind of mixed dried fruit.

1½ tsp cinnamon

1½ tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground nutmeg

Sugar for sprinkling.

Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350°F and grease your tin. Mine was 7" x 10" and I didn't need to line it.

Cut the bread into 1 cm cubes and put in a large bowl.

In a saucepan, bring to a boil the milk, butter and sugar, then pour over the bread.

Mix well and leave to soak for 15 minutes, stirring now and then to break down the bread.

Add the dried fruit and spices and mix well. It should look like a thick, lumpy cake batter by now.

Spoon into the tin and bake for 45 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch.

Sprinkle with sugar and cut into squares.

Be generous with the sugar - the contrast between the crunch of the sugar and the softness of the pudding is the best bit.