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This traditional recipe for bread and butter pudding is a delicious and frugal British dessert best known for using up leftover bread crusts so nothing goes to waste.
Bread and butter pudding is a traditional sweet that is frugal as well as delicious!
It easily uses up all the bread crusts from several loaves that can stack up fast especially in families with children.
When you spend good money on excellent quality sourdough or sprouted bread, you don’t want to waste a single slice!
This includes those from loaves you make yourself. Wasting even a bit is very distasteful, particularly for a Traditional Cook!
Another dish that uses up bread crusts is sourdough French toast casserole, a tasty morning treat.
My husband likes to whip up this version of traditional bread and butter pudding recipe for family movie nights.
It is a working-class, British dessert.
The taste and texture are very similar to bread pudding, but different in that a sauce is typically served with it.
His mother made it for the family frequently while he was growing up. This recipe has passed from generation to generation due to its brilliant frugality and unmatched flavor.
Serving Suggestions
I recommend avoiding whipped butter for this recipe. Commercial butter tub spreads typically are blended with margarine or have other undesirable additives.
For the topping, my husband made a lemon sauce to drizzle over the top after the pudding was baked and crispy on top which proved to be absolutely divine.
A British white sauce is also delicious if preferred to the more sour lemon.
You could even spoon homemade vanilla pudding on top as yet another variation.
Homemade Bread and Butter Pudding Recipe
Traditional recipe for bread and butter pudding with a zesty lemon sauce that brings out the flavor and lends a delectable and mild sweet/sour tang to this hearty dessert.
Ingredients
- 15 sourdough or sprouted bread crusts
- 2 eggs preferably pastured or free range
- 8 tbsp grassfed butter softened
- 3 cups grassfed milk
- 1-2 bananas very ripe
- 1/2 cup blueberries or raisins
- 2 tbsp sucanat or dark brown cane (or coconut) sugar
Lemon Sauce
- 2 lemons
- 1/2 cup sucanat
- 3/4 cup filtered water
- 2 tbsp arrowroot powder
- 2 tbsp grassfed butter
Instructions
Bread and Butter Pudding
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Heavily butter one side of each bread crust.
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Mash bananas with a fork in a bowl.
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Stack all bread crusts except for 4 pieces butter side down in a glass casserole dish. The bread should stack 3 layers deep. If it doesn’t, use a smaller sized dish.
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Beat the eggs in a bowl. Add the milk and sucanat and mix well.
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Pour egg/milk mixture over the stacked bread in the casserole dish until just covered with liquid.
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Place mashed bananas and raisins or blueberries on the top of the soaked bread and gently fork the fruit through until evenly distributed.
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Place the 4 reserved bread crusts on top of the soaked bread and fruit – butter side up. Sprinkle the butter side up bread crusts with a small amount of additional sucanat.
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Bake bread and butter pudding in the oven preheated to 350 °F/177 °C for 90 minutes and until brown and crispy on top.
Lemon Sauce
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Grate the rind of one lemon very finely.
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Juice the grated lemon plus the other lemon and set aside. Saute the grated lemon rind in butter for 3 minutes.
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Add sugar with a very small amount of water to the rind mixture until it dissolves while still sauteing the rind. In a cup, mix the water and arrowroot and mix well ensuring there are no lumps.
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Pour water/arrowroot mixture into the pan with the rind/sugar and keep stirring until it begins to simmer and slightly thickens. Add the juice of 1-2 lemons, stir and remove from heat.
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Serve sauce immediately drizzled on bowls of the cooked bread and butter pudding.
Recipe Notes
Do not substitute honey for the sucanat as cooking with honey is unhealthy and should be avoided.
Date syrup, maple syrup, or coconut sugar may be used in place of sucanat if desired.
More Healthy Pudding Recipes
Here are more healthy pudding ideas made only with whole, natural ingredients.
Ok – am defo having a go at this recipe with my homemade Spelt bread.
All that lovely butter & egg yolk will slow down the absorption of the ‘sugar’ (hardly any)
My mum always used to put cinnamon in bread & butter pudding – something that helps insulin (allegedly LOL). Oh & I’be been thinking about this a lot recently & not saying its right, but its interesting how traditionally people always ate puddings, but hardly anybody was fat! Even right up until the 1970’s – when I see old footage on TV everyone was so skinny. (I’m 43 so I remember it too)
Erica (in the UK)
(PS: I love the comment about breast milk.)
Sarah – by ‘crust’ do you mean the heels of the bread, or just the edges of each slice? I can see how to butter one side of a heel, but not so sure how to put this together if we’re talking about the edges off a single slice of bread. I just want to make sure I’m collecting the correct ingredients. We usually finish off every loaf of bread from heel to heel, but I’m definitely going to have to save up to make this!
Hi Jennifer, I mean the slices on the ends of the loaf.
Thanks for asking that question! I was wondering myself.
Oh my goodness, I’m practically drooling on my keyboard!
All things in moderation including moderation!
indulgence once in a while is a good thing,
How is this in any way healthy? It’s pure carbs and sugar, and not combined correctly (one should never combine grains with dairy or fruit). This is no better than a donut or candy bar. This site…hmmmmm.
There is nothing wrong with natural sugars in moderate amounts. We have taste buds that detect sweet after all which indicates that this is a natural preference. Breastmilk is loaded with lactose (milk sugar) which is critical for development of the baby’s nervous system.
Also, this dessert is HARDLY loaded with sugar! It has 2 TBL for the entire casserole plus 1/2 cup fruit! Skip the lemon sauce if you like but even if you make it, it is only drizzled on.
No better than a donut or a candy bar? Are you sure you want to stand by that statement? 🙂
Stephanie,
Where in the world do you get your candy bars and donuts? 😉 Given, this isn’t a pastured-chicken and home-grown lettuces salad with fermented dressing, but it certainly seems pretty tame in terms of a once-in-a-while dessert.
And I’m curious where you learned that one should NEVER combine grains with dairy or fruit? I’ve never heard that before.
Oh…homemade donuts…fried in coconut oil….YUM! Thyroid promoting goodness!
This looks incredible! I can’t wait to make it- I actually have all the ingredients!
My hubby ate more than me. Ok, now I feel better! 🙂
It sounds so delicious. I am definitely trying this recipe soon!
Ehhh, I bet they were small bowls.