Pear & walnut bread & butter pudding

Walnuts and pears are a successful partnership in both sweet and savoury dishes but we’ve settled on a warming, sweet recipe that suits the current season. It’s Pear and Walnut Bread and Butter Pudding, adapted from The Calm Kitchen by Lorna Salmon (available to purchase in the farm shop).

This pud is the ideal way to use up bread that’s going slightly stale and works best with pears that have been quietly ripening at home for a couple of days. It’s a flexible recipe too; you can prepare it in advance and keep it in the fridge ready to bake and serve with a flourish later.

Recipe serves 4-6

Ingredients 

4 slices white farmhouse bread, trimmed crusts

50-60g butter, softened

3 ripe pears, peeled, cored and chopped into bite-sized pieces

40g walnuts, roughly chopped

40g demerara sugar, plus a little extra for sprinkling

3 medium free-range eggs

300ml whole milk

200ml double cream

Plus extra to serve

1tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 160*C fan/gas mark 4 and butter a 1.5l baking dish. 

Butter the bread and cut it into halves or quarters. Put a layer of bread in the dish, then add the pears, most of the walnuts and half the sugar. Cover with another layer of bread.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, the remaining sugar and vanilla extract. Once you can no longer see the sugar granules, strain the mix through a sieve over the layered bread. 

Cover the dish with foil and set aside for 30 minutes. Then place the dish on a baking sheet. Sprinkle the remaining walnuts and a little more sugar over the top before baking for 25-35 minutes.

Leave to cool for a few minutes, then serve with a generous dollop of cream.