This dish is inspired by my Dad’s own bread and butter pudding recipe with a French twist coming from the croissants. It is so rich and buttery, with the pink grapefruit marmalade cutting through the sweetness to give it a nice, slightly sour tang which balances the pudding beautifully. Make sure you buy the croissants a day ahead otherwise they’ll struggle to absorb the custardy milk mixture properly. You could alternatively replace the croissants with day-old brioche slices.
Ingredients
10 day-old croissants
Unsalted butter, softened for spreading
700ml milk (full fat is best)
5 eggs, beaten
A handful of dried cranberries
Seeds scraped from one vanilla pod
Loose brown sugar
Method
Pre-heat your oven to 180C. Slice croissants in half, length-ways then butter and spread a layer of The Cherry Tree’s Pink Grapefruit Marmalade on the inside part of each slice of croissant. Lay the croissant slices flat and sprinkle over a thin layer of loose brown sugar. Starting with the bottom halves of the croissant (the top halves look better on the top of the pudding aesthetically), begin arranging them in your baking dish, fairly tightly packed. You can cut the croissants into halves if it means they fit more snugly. With each layer, spread a small amount of butter on the top of each croissant then add some dried cranberries and sprinkle over some more sugar. Repeat this process until you have used up all of the croissant halves.
In a mixing jug, mix the milk, vanilla seeds and beaten eggs, then add a couple of tablespoons of sugar and stir well. Pour this mixture over the layered croissants, top with a few more cranberries and then bake in the oven for about 40 minutes.
