A firm favourite in my family served warm or cold, my wife’s aka Nanny’s bread pudding using a recipe from an old 1970s edition of Good Housekeeping is the best.
Grandads Cookbook is a collection of recipes from various sources reproduced here for convenience. Recipes are accredited to their original author where known and links are provided to any online source materials.
Celebrating Heritage British Food & Cooking
Mind, you have to be quick to get some as it usually gets eaten before it gets cold! Get in quick and have a slice with a good cup of tea.
It’s Not Bread and Butter Pudding
Do not confuse this with bread and butter pudding, another British creation, which is something quite different.
Rationing Thrift
This is also a wartime recipe recommended by The Ministry of Food in their ‘Puddings and Sweets’ leaflet issued during the Second World War.
Amid WWII and rationing, every household had to use whatever was available and become quite creative at mealtime. This leaflet helps the cook of the house prepare some interesting dishes for dessert.
Click here for more recipes and more information on cooking during the Second World War in Britain.
Housewives needed to find ways of making food that was filling but used few of the available ingredients. it’s an easy way to use up stale bread.
Using stale bread this way is nothing new. Food historians can trace it back to as early as the 11th century.
Try Bread Pudding With Custard
Delicious hot or cold, my favourite way to enjoy it is warm with a generous dollop of custard on top.
Video Recipe
Cheryl over at What’s For Tea shows you how to make her bread pudding.
If you like these heritage puddings why not try spotted dick with custard?
Nanny’s Bread Pudding
Equipment
- 20cm Baking tin
Ingredients
- 225 g White bread crusts removed, preferably stale
- 300 ml Milk
- 225 g Dried mixed fruit e.g. sultana, raisins, currants
- 1 Tea Bag
- 50 g Suet
- 2 tsp Mixed spice
- 50 g Soft brown sugar
- 1 Egg beaten
- 1 tbsp Granulated sugar
- Butter for greasing the tin
Conversions
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas 4
- Break the bread into small pieces and put into a bowl
- Put the dried fruit into a bowl with a tea bag and pour over boiling water. Stir carefully to separate the fruit and leave to soak for 15 minutes.
- Add the brown sugar, suet, egg, spice and rehydrated fruit to the bread pieces and mix well to combine.
- Pour over the milk, mix well with a fork and leave to soak for 30 minutes
- Butter a square or rectangular 20cm non-stick baking tin
- Pour into the prepared tin and flatten the top
- Bake in centre of the oven for 1 – 1½ hrs. If browning too quickly, cover with foil and bake for the remaining time.
- Take out of oven and sprinkle over the granulated sugar
- Leave to cool in the tin
Notes
For a more succulent pudding or if your mixed dried fruit is too dry. Plump them up by rehydrating them before using them in baking.
Following a comment from Julie, I have taken to rehydrating my fruit in hot tea for 15 minutes. It definitely improves the recipe! Thanks, Julie.
You may also like one of my other favourite recipes …
BREAD PUDDING: wife just made it. just how i remember it. great recipe ! 👍
Hi Rod,
Glad you liked it.
Richard thankyou…brought up by my Grandparents so most of your recipes I used to make when I was first married 56 years ago…over the years one tends to end up trying different meals and ‘newer recipes’ so gradually fewer and fewer of these recipes I ‘grew up with’ were made.
Finding your site has prompted me to go back many years and start ‘real cooking’ again.
Cornish pasties for supper tonight and making a treacle tart and the bread pudding for over this weekend 👍
I’ll be blaming you fror my weight gains 😇
2 tbsp seems too much spice.
Ooops! Well spotted I missed that one. I’ve corrected that to 2 tsp.
Thanks, Richard
2 tbsp seems too much spice in the bread pudding recipe.
Ooops! Well spotted I missed that one. I’ve corrected that to 2 tsp.
Thanks, Richard
15 cm tin?? That’s tiny? It’s that right? That’s smaller than my hand.
Hi Kate,
It does seem too small doesn’t it? Blame my wife, it was her recipe 😃.
I think a 30cm/12″ tin would be more sensible so I have changed it.
Thanks for pointing it out.
Richard
Had some bread which needed using up so thought I would look for a recipe for bread pudding.
Fantastic!! Just like my Mum used to make many moons ago. It went in next to no time. Son-in-law and grandson loved it and me of course. Thank you Richard.
Hi Vivien,
Glad you all enjoyed it.
Richard
Dear Richard, I grew up in the 40s during the War and I learnt how to make a Bread Pudding from my Grandmother. I have to tell you she didn’t use milk, nutmeg, suet, mixed spice, or an egg, an egg really, it was war time. She used Lard, Cinammon, Lemon juice and lemon peel, sultanas, brown sugar. The bread was soft enough with soaking in water and we used the crusts. I’ve just made one, well it’s in the oven. best one you’ll ever taste. Nick
Hi Nick,
I seem to remember my grandmothers recipe was something similar, again a product of wartime rationing.
This is my late wife’s recipe which our family like.
Whichever recipe you use just enjoy it!
My nans war time recipe is very similar to this, but she soaked the bread & fruit in 250ml tea, adds 1 tbsp of treacle and doesn’t use an egg at all. It’s beautiful, spicey & dark.
I bought all the ingredients to make bread pudding, it will be my first time, so I’m looking forward to tasting it…. We don’t eat much bread, and I’m always throwing half loaves out, so thought this would be ideal…. Today we have no bread, so I will have to go out and buy a fresh loaf and let it go stale 🙄😂😂…
Hi Maggie,
I freeze left over bread and when I have enough make it for the family. Let me know how it goes?
Richard
This has just become my husband’s favorite perfect every time. Thank you
Hi Jan,
I’m really glad he enjoys it so much.
Richard
Hubby’s favorite now perfect every time thank you 😊