Making A Bread And Butter Pudding Toastie
23rd December 2024 - New Experience Number 37.
I’d never considered making a bread and butter pudding toastie before. Toasties are usually savoury in my book. Yet when a friend told me about it, I knew I wanted to give this a try as one of my fifty-two new things in 2024.
The Toastie Debate
Don’t you just love a toastie? It’s not something I have very often, but when I do, there’s something deliciously comforting about those melting hot breaded snacks.
Just to be clear, I’m talking about a toastie made in a toastie sandwich maker. You know the sort; the sandwich making machine clamps your filling of choice between bog standard sliced bread, and seals the crust edges closed to make perfect triangular pockets of hot oozing scrumptiousness.
I feel that the humble toastie made in this way, is being overshadowed by the toasted sandwich. A toasted sandwich doesn’t safely secure the contents between the slices, it’s much messier to eat, and is often very over priced.
Don’t get me wrong, I quite like a toasted sandwich, if I know in advance that’s what I’m getting. In my opinion, a toasted sandwich is not a toastie. It seems to have a certain sense of smug poshness about it, making a toastie feel like a lesser, common relative.
My Love Of A Proper Toastie
To me, there’s something superior about the triangular toasted sliced bread of a toastie. Sealed to hide combinations of melted treasure within, and being able to consume it with one hand, safe in the knowledge that the contents are usually secure. The only hazard being certain ingredients which seem to have become hotter than the sun during cooking – I’m looking at you, tomatoes!
I had to get that off my chest, as I have been provided with a toasted sandwich before when it had been called a toastie. I was bitterly disappointed. Of course I ate it – I’m not ungrateful, I hate waste, and I’m aware it’s very much a first world issue in the grand scheme of things, but it was such a let down.
Anyhow, this is a post about making a bread and butter toastie for the first time. Let’s get back to it. Oh, and just so you know, it’s made in the ‘proper‘ toastie way.
Our Seldom Used Toastie Machine
Like many people, we have got a toastie making machine. Usually it sits at the back of the cupboard, neglected and forgotten about, and if we’re honest, it doesn’t make the healthiest of snacks, so it’s probably a good job we don’t use it regularly.
Every now and then, we’ll get a hankering for a classic cheese and ham combination, and we’ll remember our little blue friend.
It’s always a joy to make a toastie. The tidying up bit is less fun as melted cheese does seem to ooze all over the machine and it is a greasy mess to clean up. Always worth it though.
Tasty Toasties
I’d only ever considered toasties to be a savoury snack. Of course you can add chutneys and relishes which might add some sweetness, but I’d never for one minute thought about using a toastie machine to make a pudding.
It was when chatting with a friend about what constitutes a proper toastie (a very high brow conversation I’m sure you’ll agree), when they shared that they had a toastie recipe book they’d received one Christmas.
I was already excited about the prospect of a multitude of interesting combinations that lay within the pages. Then they dropped the big news. There was a recipe for a bread and butter pudding toastie. My mind was blown. This was something I definitely wanted to try. Huge thanks to my friend for sending the recipe over, and introducing me to this heavenly dessert.
Making a Bread And Butter Toastie
This was an absolutely unexpected treat. I was very dubious about this, but opening up the toasted sandwich maker revealed a delicious golden delight inside.
There were just 7 easy to get hold of ingredients, it was very simple to assemble, and super speedily devoured.
It was light and fluffy and tasted like a decadently rich bread and butter pudding, and it had been made in the humble toastie maker.
The Ingredients For Making A Bread And Butter Pudding Toastie
There was nothing too out of the ordinary needed in order to make this sweet treat. However, as I made my shopping list, I saw that this would be a calorific dessert, so it’s not something to make too regularly.
Here’s what I used to make 2 bread and butter pudding toasties.
- 3 teaspoons of sugar
- 75ml of full fat milk
- 2 tablespoons of double cream
- 1 large egg
- Butter
- 1 tablespoon of raisins.
- The recipe recommended using 6 slices of a brioche loaf, alternatively white sliced bread would work. I picked up a brioche loaf, I decided if I was going to make it, I should make it properly.
The Method For Making A Bread And Butter Pudding Toastie
This is how I interpreted the recipe for my first attempt. It may look like a lot of steps, but I can assure you it’s simple. I’ve just tried to outline each part of the process as I did it.
You can either layer up one toastie at a time, or do them simultaneously.
- Turn the toastie maker on to high.
- Butter one side of each of the slices of brioche.
- Mix the sugar, milk, cream and egg together in a bowl, and then pour it into something wide, such as a bigger bowl or a plate with an edge.
- Put a slice of brioche, butter side up, into the creamy mixture for a couple of seconds to allow it to absorb some of it. Give the slice of brioche a bit of a swish about if it helps.
- Take the slice of brioche out of the bowl, and place it butter side down, into the toastie maker. (My slices of brioche were quite small, and didn’t fill the whole space on the toastie maker. I carried on regardless, and it worked out just fine).
- Sprinkle a few raisins over the slice of brioche which is now in the toastie maker.
- Put your next slice of brioche into the creamy mixture, remember the butter side needs to face upwards.
- Add this second slice of brioche to the toastie maker, on top of the first. It does not matter whether this slice is butter side up or down.
- Sprinkle over a couple of raisins.
- Take a third slice of brioche and place it butter side up into the creamy mixture.
- Put this third slice of brioche on top of the others in the toastie maker. Make sure this one is butter side up. The butter will help to prevent it from sticking to the toastie maker.
- Repeat steps 4 to 11 to make your second pudding.
- Once all of your slices are stacked, close the lid of your toastie. It may look like there is a lot to compress, but it should be fine.
- Allow it to cook for approximately three and a half minutes.
- Lift open your toastie maker and you should find a deliciously golden toastie inside.
- Enjoy the pocket of rich sweet gooey delight.
Deliciously Rich Results
The results were absolutely devine.
A golden and lightly crisp exterior, with a wonderfully light and fluffy interior, yet very rich in flavours. I’ll definitely be experimenting with this again!
What do you think? Will you be giving it a go? I’d love to know your thoughts.
Want To Try It Yourself?
- If you want to try making the bread and butter pudding toastie yourself, you could follow my method above.
- Alternatively, take a look at this recipe from Baccarat, which uses a raisin loaf.
Cost Of Experience
- If you need to buy all of the ingredients to make this toastie treat, it could cost you around £10.50, depending on where you shop.
- If you need to buy all of the ingredients from scratch, you’ll have plenty left over for other makes and bakes.
Recommendations
- Get everything you need ready first. It’s helpful to weight out and measure all of the ingredients before you being.
- You can always substitute. You could always use sultanas instead of raisins. You could use a different sort of sliced bread instead of brioche.
- Get creative. How about adding a sprinkle of cinnamon, or nutmeg to your creations?
- Choose your butter. I used salted butter as that’s what we had in, and it added a nice subtle sharpness alongside the sweetness. If that doesn’t sound appealing, use an unsalted butter. Alternatively, as the butter is really only used to prevent the toastie from sticking to the machine, you could always use a margarine.
- Serve with a splash of custard. For an even more decadent delight, pour on some custard when you serve.
- Be careful. Both during the make, but also take care when you bite into it the toastie as it will be hot.
- Take a picture of your creation. Let me know how you get on if you decide to give it a try!
This is such a fun idea! I have a toastie maker as well, but normally opt for using a toastie bag that you can shove in the toaster as you don’t have to clean it much 🙈. I’ve heard of using pancake batter or cake mixture as well, but haven’t ventured that far yet.
You should give this a try! But definitely not in a toastie bag, I think that would make more mess than using the toastie maker!
Well, there are two new ideas for me to try, I’d never thought of pancake batter. I can see that working. I’m not so sure about cake mixture, but I’ll give it a go at some point!
Thank you so much for reading and taking the time to comment, I hugely appreciate it.
Hope you have a great weekend ahead,
Sally :o)
What is it with owning a sandwich toaster and maybe using a few times when you first get it, and then pretty much never again? I bought one in my early twenties, and it became like the family member you forget exists.
Ive never tried bread and butter pudding before, but I like the novel idea of turning the forgotten sandwich maker into a dessert marker. I’d be much more likely to use it for desserts
We seem to remember ours once a year in the summer, but then it soon gets relegated back to the depths of the cupboard. Always a treat to get it out though. Hope you give yours a dusting off at some point this year.
Caroline mentioned in the comments trying pancake batter, which I think might work as long as the toastie maker is greased first to avoid sticking. She also suggested she’d heard people putting cake mixture directly into a toastie maker. I’m not sure how that would work, but I might give it a try!
Thanks as always for reading and commenting.
Sally
:o)
Oh my gosh I need to try this. Like you, I rarely use my toastie maker, it’s more like a kitchen decoration than a utensil.
It was exceedingly scrumptious, I was really impressed how delicious it was.
Our toastie maker rarely sees the light of day, it’s usually hidden in the darkness at the back of a cupboard! We could do with finding a second purpose for them couldn’t we?!
Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment, it’s always appreciated
Sally :o)
Absolutely right on the toastie and toasted sandwich difference. Bread and butter pudding is my absolute favourite pudding! I’m on a bit of a low carb diet at the moment so bread is off the menu. But will make this for a special time (birthday?).
YES! So good to know I’m not alone in my toastie argument.
It’s one of my all time favourite puddings too.
Good luck if you do make it, I’d love to know what you think.
Thanks as always for reading and commenting. Hope you’re having a lovely weekend.
Sally :o)