Sweet memories

When I was a child I always saw my grandmother as a witch. Not a crocked nose wicked Hansel and Gretel witch, more like good Samantha in bewitched. I believed that for several reasons.

One I was a child with a huge imagination.

Two the Caribbean culture is filled with stories of witches and if there are bad ones there must be good ones.

Finally three because of the things she was capable of. My grandmother had her own garden with herbs, mangos and cacao growing.  When I could not sleep at night she would make me a wild basil infusion that would knock me out like a log or if I was sick with a cold she would give me some herb remedy that would put me back into shape the next day.

Rest her soul she passed away at the ripe age of 98 and it really hit me hard. I think of her quite often and when I do I think of the dishes she made me as a child. One of my favourites was her bread pudding dessert. Now every culture has their own variation of this desert but my grandmother’s will always be the best one for me, to the point where I can’t enjoy any other.

This is a very easy desert to make and the recipe I am giving you can easily serve up to ten people.

Maggie’s Caribbean Bread pudding

Ingredients:

1kg stale white bread without the crust

75cl milk

200g brown caster sugar

2tbsp cinnamon

Pinch of nutmeg

1tsp vanilla extract

100g soft unsalted butter

50g raisins

50ml dark rum

6 whole eggs

Preparation

Mix milk, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, or microwave so the milk is hot. Make sure the sugar has melted into the milk.

Pour liquid mixture over bread and let soak for 5 minutes. Crush the bread into the milk make sure there are very few chunks.

Add butter, vanilla extract to the mixture and mix till well incorporated.

Add eggs, mixing them in one at a time.

Finally mix rum soaked raisins in.

Pour your mixture into a greased pan, put into a pre heated oven at 180 ̊c and cook for 35 to 45 minutes.

Plunge a knife into the centre if the knife comes out clean then it is ready. Let it rest for an hour, and voila!

Bonne appetite.

Tips: sprinkle some caster or icing sugar over the pudding as soon as it comes out of the oven. This should give your pudding a nice shine

If you don`t have time to soak your raisins over night, you can bring them to a boil in some water stain the water out and then add them to the rum while still warm and let them settle for 10 to 15 minutes in the rum before using.

This is just the basic recipe but can be transformed into a very fancy dessert for your dinner parties. For example I once served this with caramelised pineapple rings and a ball of rum raisin ice cream.

As you can see in the photo, I dusted it with icing sugar added a ball of raspberry sorbet and drizzled with summer fruit dressing.

This pudding can be eaten cold or warm. I personally prefer having it warm.

Enjoy and don’t forget to comment.