Pear and croissant bread pudding
“Bread pudding in an Armani suit”…that’s how Niki Segnit described her idea of using up leftover almond croissants. In her monumental “The Flavour Thesaurus” she lists flavour pairings, some classic, some rather unusual. It’s a great source if you are lacking inspiration for what to cook. I haven’t got it in your collection yet, I urge you to get this book if you are serious about reducing food waste in your kitchen. Niki doesn’t so much give recipes with exact quantities in the book, it’s more an inspiration. In fact she states in her foreword how she found herself being a slave to recipes, following them to a tee. So much so that there were visible lines left from her fingernails underneath the ingredients and methods in cookbooks she used frequently. I am not a big fan of cookbooks dedicated to zero waste. Many still come with lengthy ingredients lists and mostly give exact quantities, which kind of defeats the purpose. I prefer the compendiums that teach you some of the basics of cookery. I wonder how much food is being wasted because people are feeling insecure if adding a little bit more of an ingredient than asked for is ruining the dish.
Enough waffling…what about the bread pudding in an Armani suit? The other day we had 3 croissants left over from a catering at work. My colleagues weren’t interested, so I took them home. Niki Segnit suggested almond croissants, mine were plain, but I had some Dutch almond paste in my larder I thought I could use to pimp the croissants. I adjusted the amount of milk and cream, because I couldn’t see how two croissants could absorb so much liquid (the third croissant I kept for a French toast for breakfast - post and recipe to follow!). Croissants also vary in size. The ones I had were a lot larger and the dough was very laminated, creating many pockets for the custard. If you find the custard cannot be absorbed completely by the croissants, keep the rest and make some pancake batter. You want the bread and butter pudding to be moist, but not soggy.
Pear and almond croissant bread pudding
2 croissants, slightly stale
2 pears, peeled, cored, quatered and sliced
125 g almond paste or marzipan, broken into pieces
250 ml milk
250 ml cream
1.5 tablespoons sugar
1 egg and 2 egg whites
dash of almond etract (optional)
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Slice the croissants into 2 cm slices. Butter a 1 litre ovenproof dish and layer the sliced croissants with the pears and almond paste in it. Heat the milk and cream in a pan. Beat the egg and egg whites with the sugar and almond extract (if using) and slowly add to the heated cream. Pour this over the croissants and pears and let sit for 10 minutes before baking for 45 minutes in the oven. Dust with icing sugar and serve.
