Its all in the pudding

Dear readers,

Welcome to my blog! Im a 24 year old female pastry chef with an infectious love of vintage cookery.

When I was growing up, my parents would spend weekends scouring antique shops and warehouses for depression glass and edwardian furniture amongst various other antiques.
I remember hating day trips, i resented being dragged back and forth through the musty crowded buildings of what i then considered junk. Argueing and fighting with my brother in the back seat from the minute we left home, to the second we arrived back in the early evening. what hell we must have put mum and dad through!
Funnily enough, 15 years later my collection of old cookbooks, vintage mixmasters and general kitchenalia is insidious and i hate to think of all the rare and wonderful collectables i missed out on.

My first introduction to baking was from my mothers australian womens weekly cookbooks. With their triple tested recipes, basic ingredients and straight forward step by step instructions, anything seemed possible. My mother was (and still is) a fantastic cook. Every week there would be a freshly baked cake and a container of biscuits at the very least. And if we were extra lucky, a delicious slice as well! We were spoilt for choice and I remember having school friends amazed at how incredible it all tasted; probably compared to their artificial tasting LCM bars and rainbow roll ups. Dont get me wrong, I remember wishing my mother would buy those  red rollups, like all the other mothers. But if you asked me today,
Id trade pretty much any packaged sweet for a fresh piece of 'great grandmothers chocolate cake' or a finger of 'lemon slice'.

Working as a pastry chef is very rewarding. Im lucky enough to be working for a business that allows their employees creative freedom, infact its almost a pre requisite. Passion is very important to be a successful cook. I suppose when you think about it, passion is a key part of progress in any career. I didnt always want to be a cook. When I was 16 I wanted to be an artist.
I even studied it, being accepted into a fine arts degree at Rmit. But after 6 months I found it wasnt for me. They say pastry chefs and bakers are artists. I think you have to have a certain amount of artistic licence to create something of substance, day in and day out. If I wasnt doing what Im doing now, I think Id be lost. Thats when you know you've found your calling.


The bakery is a fantastic place to work. Everyday Jason arrives in the freezing cold at 1.30am to start firing up our 1930s wood fired oven with Dave, located at the back of the bakery. 
By the time I arrive for my shift at 5.30am, the shop is warm and cosy. By this time the various different doughs have already been mixed and are starting to be weighed and shaped up. Everything is made by hand as it would have been done back in the day.
There are no snazzy machines, nasty pre-mixes or short cuts. Just plain hard work, quality ingredients and love and care.

The pastry kitchen is my domain. This is where all the cakes, pastries, croissants, scrolls and tarts (and anything else that may be on the drawing board)  are made. Everyday is different, which leaves lots of room for creative experimenting!

At 9am the shop opens. The bread is brushed before it goes out onto the shelves to sell and the shop is set up for the day. You will always know the first customer has come in when you hear the ding of our 1950s cash register, as its sound rings right through to the back of the bakery. Its one of those rings that fills you with an irresistable feeling of nostalgia.

My blog will have an exciting new entry every month, filled with recipes, cookery methods, household hints,
kitchenalia and culinary history.
Remember, 'there is no sincerer love than the love of food'
(George Bernard Shaw), so join me in the kitchen and cook up a storm of yesteryear wonder.

How to make-
Bread and butter pudding

PREHEAT your oven to 180 C (moderate)
You will need-

-3/4 of a large 1 kg loaf of fruit loaf,
(preferably a thick sourdough fruit bread)
-80g butter (room temperature)
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 tbsp corn flour
- 120g castor sugar
- 240ml cream
- 180ml milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract

HISTORY
Bread and Butter pudding was originally called 'white pot'. Invented by the british in the mid 17th century through to the mid to late 18th century, bread and butter pudding was made up of bread (often stale), cream, milk, eggs, sugar, spices and sweet dried fruits such as raisins and sultanas. The original white pot sometimes contained marrow instead of or as well as butter and was cooked in a pudding basin. 'Bread pudding' often associated with bread and butter pudding is a simpler less extravagant version of bread and butter pudding, cooked often by the poor or working class. The bread is steamed beforehand, and then is combined with sugar syrup, fruit or meats and a similar custard base made up of eggs and milk.

Modern british cooks such as delia smith and Nigella Lawson to name a few have brought this dish back into fashion with different updated variations on the dessert. 'Delia Smith's winter collection' (Delia Smith, 1995.London, BBC books/BBC worldwide publishing), has a dark chocolate and rum version, along with a marmalade version with orange zest and candied peel. Nigella's version in 'The domestic goddess' (Nigella Lawson, 2003, Great Britain, Chatto & Windus), is named pain au chocolat pudding, chocolate croissants with a traditional custard base.

METHOD

Cut your fruit loaf into slices, approximately 1.5-2cm in thickness. Spread generously with your butter, then stack together, in lots of 3 to cut off the crusts. Dont worry if its not perfect, as texture in this pudding is always a plus. Cut each piece of bread in half, diagonally, to form triangles.

Grease a 30cm x 20cm casserole or roasting dish with butter. If you only have a large deep roasting dish, double the recipe. Place your prepared fruit loaf into your roasting dish as pictured below. Set aside.

In a small to medium saucepan, using a whisk, thoroughly combine the egg yolks, sugar and corn flour. Gradually, (and I mean gradually) add the cream and milk til you get a creamy liquid mixture. If you find that there are a few lumps, sieve the mixture into a spare bowl. Then pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Before cooking the custard, prepare a larger bowl by adding the vanilla extract to it. This way, when you have cooked your custard to prefection, you can pour it straight into the large bowl to cool. This prevents any further cooking (or more importantly, burning) from the hot saucepan.

Place your saucepan on a low to medium heat and stir. Do not leave the saucepan at any point! The egg mixture must be stirred continously (with a spoon) to prevent it from catching on the bottom of the pan. When your mixture has thickened and is bubbling, pour it straight into your prepared large bowl. Stir the custard and the vanilla extract together.

Pour your custard mixer over the fruit loaf evenly and place into the oven for 25-45 minutes. The reason there is such a large range in the cooking time has to do with the type of bread used. Sourdough bread makes the dish cook quicker because of its density. Whereas softer yeast fruit loaves can take longer to set because they are much lighter, which makes for a soggier mixture.

Serve this delicious dessert hot with cream or ice cream. Yum!

MONTHLY COOKERY TIPS
BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING

To get the best results when making bread and butter pudding, make sure you use stale bread that is at least 1 day old.
Using poor quality fresh bread that is not stale will result in a soggy wet type consistency. I used a soudough fruit loaf. Using sourdough as opposed to white supermarket bread will give you a richer result with a wider range of textures throughout the dish.

Enhancing the taste of bread and butter pudding-
- Instead of or as well as butter, spread your bread with a thin layer of raspberry jam, apricot jam or marmalade for a sweeter dessert.
- Day old croissants can be used in place of the bread for a fluffy buttery texture.
- For a modern more decadent edge to this dessert add dark choc chips or raspberries with white choc chips.

Thankyou. I sincerely hope you've enjoyed reading this blog as much as Ive enjoyed writing it. Remember to follow me for lots more delicious recipes and ideas for your vintage kitchen!