Brioche Bread and Butter Pudding Tart

My Brioche Bread and Butter Pudding Tart has very caramelised crispy edges, which your family or dinner guests might just fight over, if given the chance, and the vanilla scented custard filling layered with pops of chocolate and marmalade is amazingly light, smooth and delicious. This is my idea of a perfect dessert over Easter this year, when there may be some chocolate indulgence, requiring a well balanced dessert with just a hint of chocolate and sweetness to be on theme.

 

This is a comfort pudding at it's best. It's just perfect for now with the Autumn weather cooling life right down here in the Southern Hemisphere, however this type of pudding will always be popular, wherever you are.

This dessert is a more luxurious twist on the traditional Bread and Butter Pudding I grew up with, using rich buttery brioche instead of the standard 2 day old white bread which was generally used, and wasn't as fresh as would be preferred for sandwiches. This pudding has a soft, custard soaked brioche interior, with crispy edges and a sweet topping. I was tempted to change it's name, as when cooked it could be a Brioche Custard tart, or a Chocolate and Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding, or just an absolutely delicious Brioche and Custard Pudding. I decided to stick with the familiar, which is what we all know, and is the original name. 

Why use Brioche? Well first of all it's delightfully and traditionally French, hailing from the Normandy region of France. Sliced white bread still gives us a very edible and economical Bread and Butter everyday pudding, Brioche on the other hand is rich, buttery and airy, and the French love it. It's high fat content from eggs and butter means it results in a much more gourmet and creamy dessert, than white bread would. Also, the subtle sweetness of brioche pairs beautifully with dark chocolate, marmalades and dried fruits, meaning it's perfect for this pudding tart. This dessert isn't too sweet at all, perfect  for my tastes.

Let's Cook:

INGREDIENTS:

125g butter, plus a little extra for greasing the dish

4 tablespoons demerara sugar

750g brioche (I used two whole loaves, 800 g)

1 vanilla pod

300ml thickened cream

300ml full cream milk

5 large eggs

100g castor sugar

60g dark chocolate (70%) (I used Lindt, no promo intended)

60g citrus fruit marmalade (any homemade if you have it will be good)

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C/350 deg F/gas 4.

 Lightly grease a lasagna sized dish (9 x 13 inches or approx. 33 x 22 x7 cm) or a 28cm loose-bottomed tart tin, which I don't own.

Measure two tablespoons of the demerara sugar, tip into the bowl of your pestle and mortar and bash away until fine. Add the rest of your demerara sugar (2 tablespoons) to the fine stuff in the bowl, so there is now a range of textures in there. 

Tip the demerara sugar into the baking dish or tart tin, shake around to coat. Tip any excess sugar back into the mortar for later. 

We now need to form a pastry-like shell around the cooking dish  Slice the edges off the brioche in strips and line them along the base of the baking dish or tart tin and around the sides. Press these down hard to compact so that the surface of the dish is fully covered with a brioche pastry shell.

Making a kind of custard:

Slit the vanilla pod down the middle lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds. 

Put the vanilla seeds and the pod into a medium sized saucepan, then add the cream, the milk, and the butter, and simmer all of it gently for 5 minutes by which time the butter should be melted.

Grab a large bowl, add the cracked eggs and the sugar and whisk for 2 minutes until smooth.

Whisking constantly, add the hot cream mixture to the bowl until combined. Discard the vanilla pod.

Layering the pudding:

Pour 1/3 of the custard (about 1 cup will be fine) into the base of the tart and leave to soak into the bread or about 2 minutes.

Bring your chocolate and marmalade to your baking dish.

Pull apart the brioche into rough chunks, dip them into the custard using tongs, soaking them well, and layer up in the tart shell you've made. Meanwhile between each layer, snap off small chunks of chocolate and add them with dollops of marmalade between the layers. No need to be exact with this. It's all about creating saturation of the brioche, creating textures, and a range of heights which will crisp up beautifully when cooked. Brioche is the perfect bread for this.

Pour any leftover custard over the top, it will soak in, then sprinkle the remaining demerara sugar over the surface of the tart.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until set.

Allow the pudding to rest for 10 minutes.

Serve with cream or ice cream. It even tastes delicious cold, but I prefer puddings to be warm. However, when it's cold, it reminds me of a Vanilla Custard tart, without the layer of icing on the top, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Custard in the base of the brioche tart shell

Ready for the oven, with dark chocolate and marmalade within

Check out the crispy crust

This pudding was the dessert I cooked to follow a Chicken Tikka Masala curry. I think this was an ideal menu and combination of flavours, with the Brioche custard tart providing a slightly sweet and custardy finale to a main course full of Indian aromatic flavours. Recipe for the curry is on it's way.

Brioche pulled apart into rough chunks

Panettone perhaps?

Panettone will give much the same result as Brioche, perhaps even a bit more spectacular, however it is more of a Christmas speciality where I live, and after Christmas it seems to sell out, never to be seen again until the following Christmas. I'm sure it can be found in gourmet delis in the cities all year round, however not in regional Northern Queensland. I'm now waiting for friends to write to me and tell me they've found a panettone where I live, perhaps at Aldi? 

My talented foodie friend Julia, and we also worked together in libraries many moons ago, made this dessert recently for a family dinner and used a Panettone, which she bought at a reduced price after Christmas this year. She was so thrilled with the result, as were her family, that I had to make it, but with Brioche. Note to self, to buy a Panettone over Christmas or just after, at a reduced price*** There have been suggestions to make this pudding with sliced Hot Cross Buns for Easter, or with sliced fruit loaf, but I am not convinced the result would be as light, smooth or crispy as those breads are heavier than brioche. Worth a try though I suppose, in the spirit of Easter.  It would still be delicious and very edible, and more economical when buying the ingredients as well.

Delicious Brioche Custard Tart for two, reheated with ice-cream (renamed)

Cook's notes:

• The pudding can be completely assembled in advance in the dish, and placed in the fridg, until ready to bake. I left mine in the fridge for 2 hours before cooking so that I could just put it in the oven to cook when necessary, and then keep it warm in the oven on 50 deg C, while we ate our main meal. I could then serve it warm, straight from the oven. It's a good idea though to just rest it for 10 minutes before serving.
• It's best not to add the rest of the demerara sugar until just before lifting your tart into the oven.
• I used demerara sugar, because I had it, but raw sugar can be also used, 
• This tart is also delicious cold if there are any leftovers, but there probably won't be. (Did I already say that?)
• A 28cm loose-bottomed tart tin can also be used for this recipe.
• Thanks to our friend Paul, for the delicious marmalade I used in this pudding. He called it OMG marmalade, which is Orange, Mandarin and Grapefruit (I think), and  was perfect for this. He makes so many delicious jams from in season fruits, and grows grapefruit in his backyard.

This pudding is based on a similar tart by British chef, Jamie Oliver, and can lend itself to lots of variations. The British folk love their Bread and Butter puddings.

Warm wishes,

Pauline