Bread and butter pudding with cinnamon

People are such a bunch of wasters! I don’t mean this in a quirky or funny way either. I’m referring to something that I’m quite passionate about food wastage.

Every where I look I see evidence of needless food wastage, just take a look at the contents of the average bin be it in the office, at home (not mine I hasten to add) or on the street, it’s the same story.

And yet a glance of the media and you’re pretty much guaranteed to see an example of people not getting enough food. It’s a sad state of affairs especially when it’s children who are going hungry!

The global population has doubled in the last 40 years. This is causing a growing concern about global food security, which in essence is about ensuring everyone has access to enough nutritious food. Ironically, the Western world in particular continues to waste huge quantities of food. Australians alone waste on average 20% of the food they buy! Not only is this bloody wrong, it’s a waste of valuable resources used to produce the food in the first place. For example to produce just 1gram of lamb takes 15litres of water, to produce 100grams of cheese uses 140ml of oil (to power machinery used in production and transportation plus packaging materials).

I am hoping at this point, you are thinking about how you can help reduce this problem, because quite frankly it impacts all of us. If you need further convincing I suggest you watch this short video on food wastage by writer and comedian, John Oliver (also check out the sources at the end of my post)

So what can you do to stop being a waster? In short, stop over buying.

• Make a weekly meal plan
• Write a shopping list and stick to it
• Store food correctly

You can also use leftovers, which brings me to this weeks recipe; cinnamon bread and butter pudding. Bread and butter pudding is a traditional English dessert made with slices of bread and butter baked in an egg custard with sultanas. It’s a great way to use up bread, preferably before it goes stale and any excess milk (don’t use sour milk though, it’ll make the dessert taste awful).

Baked custard sandwiches might sound a terrible idea. Let me reassure you, this is a tasty and frugal pudding that has to be tried, before condemning as “British stodge’. It’s also simple to make and doesn’t contain too much refined sugar.

This version of bread and butter pud has bit of a Moroccan flavour as I substituted the sultanas for chopped dates and added cinnamon.

Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Cooking time: 30-40 minutes
Equipment: Ovenproof dish and a large jug

Ingredients
• 6 slices of bread (I used wholemeal but white is better)
• 75g dates – roughly chopped
• 3 large eggs
• 300ml milk
• 150ml cream or butter milk
• 50g raw or soft brown sugar
• ½ nutmeg – grated
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• Butter

Directions
• Preheat oven to 180 degrees
• Grease the oven dish with a little butter

• Butter the slices then cut into quarters.
• Arrange half the quarters in the bottom of the oven proof dish, then sprinkle two thirds of the dates over the top.
• Layer the remaining bread and butter quarters on top then the last of the dates.
• Mix the milk, cream, egg, nutmeg and cinnamon in the jug, and then pour over the bread.
• Sprinkle the sugar on the top, then pop the pudding in the oven for 30 minutes or until the top is golden.

Serve hot or cold, on it’s own or with custard.

Source:
http://www.foodwise.com.au
http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/11761219942/the-future-of-food

About the Author

Gareth Englishman in Sydney loves a whisky, pies and all things savoury. Digital Marketer by day, cook the rest of the time. Amateur writer, photographer & aspiring anthropologists.