Bread pudding ~ My mom's style of making it....

Another lazy day it was.Neither in a mood to cook, nor to eat heavy. 

Deep in thought, figuring out a way to spend less time in the kitchen, and get something ready.

As I went wild in thoughts, my mind got stuck onto something that my mother used to make. The wonderful dessert - Bread Pudding! Now, this is one thing that has most of its ingredients found almost everyday at home, which makes it a super simple dessert to prepare.

I remember, during my school days, returning back home for lunch. Post lunch, mom would have a sweet treat, ready for us. On a hot summer afternoon, this chilled bread pudding would help soothe out the heat that might have burnt us.

Last vacation, while I was home, my mom made it. My uncle had come home and my mother offered it. He, trying to be very formal, accepted it but in a very small amount. After, he had finished, he asked my mother, "Do you have some more? These are yum :)"

Ingredients

For Bread pudding

1. 3 pieces of white bread
2. 2 cups of milk
3. 1 egg
4. 4 tbsp of sugar
5. 1/2 tsp pineapple essence
6. 2 tbsp of caramel syrup
7. 1/8 tsp crushed cardamom and nutmeg
8. Cashews & raisins - 1 tbsp each. 
9. Butter/ghee - just enough to grease the pan and to fry the dry fruits

Method

Making of bread pudding

• Chop of the sides of the bread. You could preserve the chopped out, hard portion of the bread, to make bread crumbs for any other dish.
• Soak the white portion of the bread in milk. Leave it for about half an hour.
• Meanwhile, heat the ghee/butter and fry the cashews and raisins.
• Grease the pan on its inside and pour the caramel syrup to spread it on the bottom of the pan.
• In a mixer, beat the egg.
• Pour in the remaining milk to the mixer, soaked bread, sugar, pineapple essence, crushed cardamom and crushed nutmeg. Beat it well.
• Pour it onto the greased pan.
• Heat the idli cooker/pressure cooker. 
• Immerse the pan into the cooker and steam it on medium heat.
• Once half cooked (after about 7-10 mins), spread the roasted dry fruits on top of the pudding.
• The pudding should be ready in 15-20 mins or untill a knife inserted comes out clean and the pudding gets a jelly texture. 
• Once cooled, place it in the refrigerator and serve chilled.

Tips

While making the pudding

1. The mixture might seem to be too watery, but do not worry. After the pudding is ready , it would be of the perfect consistency, provided you go by the same measurement.
2. Do adjust the amount of sugar and the spices as per your requirement. Adding a bit of cinnamon powder is also a good idea.
3. You could also add a pinch of food colour, to get a restaurant style pudding.
4. You could also add in cherry along with the dry fruits.
5. Do place the dry fruits on the pudding, only when half cooked. Else, they might get drowned and lost in the pudding mixture.

Recipe courtesy : Mom

We enjoy having it and I wish you do too. Try it and let us know, how it turned out.