Croissant Butter Pudding

We Singaporeans are a lucky lot. The neighbourhood libraries are stocked with the most fabulous books! The network of libraries allow us to borrow a book from one library and drop-off the book in any other branch. We can reserve a book online and designate where you want to pick up the book. We can extend the loan online if it takes longer than expected to finish the book. We can also have SMS reminders prior to loan due date. And all these, for free! Now that the school holidays are in, we can borrow double the usual quantity of books. So between me and my kids (btw, a child can apply for a library card the day he is born), we lugged back 25 books. :-)

One of the books I borrowed was James Martin's 'Dessert'. I had no idea who he is, but the pictures in the book looked really good. Further reading reveals that he is an accomplished chef and now a successful presenter of food shows on BBC. In this book, he mentioned that one of the dishes that made him famous was the Croissant Butter Pudding. And it started out as a mistake! Three dozen croissants was ordered but 33 dozen was delivered! So he invented this dish totally out of necessity.

I was inspired by the story of how a mistake turned good and of course the really nice, delicious looking pictures. So this is the first recipe I selected from this book.

My pictures did not turn out good, but taste wise, its superb! My first pudding actually and my husband loved it. Try it, think you'd love it too.

Ingredients
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Serves 4

500ml milk
500ml double cream
1 vanilla pod
3 whole eggs
6 egg yolks
200g caster sugar
6 large croissants
25g sultanas
25g butter, melted
175g white chocolate, cut into shards
75ml whisky
icing sugar, for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees

2. Pour the milk and cream into a pan, add the vanilla pod and gradually bring to boil

3. Place the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a food mixer bowl and mix gently using the whisk attachment on a low setting

4. while the cream is heating, slice the croissants and place in oven proof dish, slightly overlapping the pieces. Sprinkle with sultanas and pour over the butter

5. once the cream has boiled, take it off the heat. Add the egg mixture and chocolate and stir well. Place to one side off the heat to allow the chocolate to melt, stirring occasionally.

6. Add the whisky to the cream mixture. Using a sieve, strain the cream over the croissants and bake in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until almost set.

7. Remove from the oven and dust with icing sugar. Caramelise the topping using a very hot grill or, if you have one, a blowtorch. This is best served at room temperature, with a spoonful of ice cream.