Cashew nut, fig, pomegranate bread pudding

Today is a mad rush for me as I’m prepping for a private cooking job, 29 people for 7 days out in Stillbaai, starting tomorrow. Man, I have allot of shopping to do!

I probably won’t get to my blog while I’m away (promise I’ll try though) but will tweet and facebook from my blackberry, so if you’re not linked – my FB page is Domestic Goddesses, ‘like’ it and you’ll get my updates. My twitter page is @theklaschwager – will be chirping and FB’ing about the trials and tribulations as I work.

I experiment with a bread pudding recipe yesterday which I plan to make while I’m away and thought it was worth sharing with you. The recipe is a product of what was in my fridge at the time but I think it is a good combination of flavours. I spread the bread with cashew nut butter and sprinkled it with fresh pomegranate seeds and chopped up fig preserve before pouring over the custard which I had flavour with vanilla, cinnamon, all spice and ground ginger. It sounds like a lot of flavours but they worked really well together. I had thought that peanut butter and apricot jam could also make for a killer bread pudding… well we’ll see what I come up with while I’m away.

Cashew nut, fig, pomegranate bread pudding

Serves 6

8 slices of white bread (I used Albany’s best of both)

8 Tbsp cashew nut butter (or the nut butter of your choice)

2 fresh figs or 2 preserved figs, chopped into small bits

½ a cup of fresh pomegranate seeds

3 eggs, separated

½ cup of castor sugar

2 tsp of vanilla essence

1 tsp of cinnamon

½ tsp of ground ginger

¼ tsp of all spice

¼ tsp of salt

2½ cups of milk

Spread each slice of bread with cashew nut butter and cut into cubes. Scatter the cubes into a casserole dish the correct size to hold all the bread. Scatter the figs and pomegranate seeds amongst the bread.

Pre heat the oven to 150C˚, place the wrack in the middle of the oven and boil a kettle full of water.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg white until the just start to thicken, add the castor sugar in parts while whipping and then the vanilla, spices and salt. Add the milk whip briefly to combine and pour immediately onto the bread cubes. Pull the cubes aside a little with a fork, so the mixture can run into all the gaps. Try to get all the cubes soaked with the egg mixture and push the cubes down all little to get the bread to absorb as much of the mixture as possible.

Place the casserole dish into a roasting pan and fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it’s about ¾ of the way up the casserole dish. Place this into the oven and bake for 45 min to an hour. You want the top of the pudding to be crispy and the egg mixture to be cooked through. Check this by piercing the pudding all the way through with a knife and checking if it comes out clean. If the top isn’t crisp, turn up the heat for a few minutes to brown it.

Serve immediately with ice cream, custard cream or fruit compote. This dessert can be re heated but it taste best when straight from the oven.