Vegan Bread Pudding ~ Not to be confused with Bread and Butter Pudding!

Kitchen Play List: Rainbow ~ The Best of Album

Bread Pudding..*sighs* Hot and smelling great straight from the oven

The comfort train has arrived in the Rocket and Roses Kitchen and seems to be staying for a while! lol. I am trying very hard to get back to our normal eating habits but maybe it's the cold weather or the fact that My Love won't be able to eat anything comforting come the New Year...who knows? So I am unapologetically starting the week with one of my comfort foods. lol.

Now there are a few recipes that I have been trying to find veganised versions of for quite a number of years. And Bread Pudding is one of them. I never made it when I was a vegetarian but when I converted over to vegan..the craving for it kicked in. lol. I got so frustrated when people would try and give me veganised versions of Bread and Butter Pudding which I have never liked..ever! Yuck!

So it was a very happy moment for me when I found a version hidden away in one the first vegan cookbooks I ever bought. Eva Batt's Vegan Cooking: Recipes for Beginners. 

As a child, it was a moment of pure happiness when I opened the door and the heady spicy smell of this pudding hit my senses. Back then it was considered a 'cheap' pudding and an excellent way to use up stale bread. Not so cheap to make these days as the price of dried fruit has gone up along with everything else. It was a very happy day when it was Bread Pudding day as everyone from my early childhood i.e Grandad, to my later childhood i.e my sister loved munching on a slice of this sweet, dense, bready, spicy and fruity treat. A little goes a long way.

Now I am not even going to believe for one minute that I could ever make Bread Pudding like my Mum does. My sister takes up residence when she knows our Mum is baking some...lol. And her little ones enjoy a piece too. A true family recipe if ever there was one. Well our family anyway..and this recipe tastes exactly the same as my Mum's version. The texture is maybe a little different but that could be that I used wholemeal bread. But this will fill that craving when it hits in the future. Success! lol. The only changes I would make next time is baking it for a slightly shorter time on a slightly higher heat to get the crispy top and edges that would make this a perfect Bread Pudding. And I would also use less suet and more bread but that is just my personal preferences...

As I mentioned before my Grandad loved a slab slice of Bread Pudding...sadly he passed away Jan 2010 and he has been in my thoughts a lot just recently so maybe this was why I found this recipe at last..So this posting is for you Grandad! 

Spicy, dense and just plain delicious..

Vegan Bread Pudding Serves 6
(Recipe from Vegan Cooking../Batt)

Soak stale bread in water for 15 minutes. Strain and squeeze out excess water. 

For every 12 oz/340g of bread add:
2oz/44g brown sugar
3oz/85g mixed dried fruit
1oz/30g vegetable suet
1 heaped tsp mixed cake spice

Mix all ingredients together well. 

Bake in a greased ovenproof dish for 3 hours at a very low temprature. 225'F/110'C/Gas Mark 1/4 

When cold cut into slices and sprinkle with brown sugar, coconut or chopped almonds. 

Hope you enjoy a taste of my childhood...
~R~