Panettone Bread & Butter Pudding

Without question, the acme of all Bread & Butter Puddings!

Panettone texture has a resilience which, in its natural state, can be reminiscent of chewing on lightly baked flannel, but which comes into its own in this kind of recipe; at the same time as absorbing the 'custard' in which it cooks, it avoids disintegrating into a characterless pap (the culinary equivalent of a wet-fish handshake!). The use of cream rather than milk in this dish results in a wonderfully silky unctuousness, and the addition of brown sugar and cinnamon just before baking gives the finished pudding a whole extra degree of sophistication. My personal preference is to include fresh raspberries between the layers of panettone...although you don't have to, and it is delicious even if you leave them out.

Made in individual ramekins, this would be dinner-party standard, and is fantastic served either warm from the oven, or cold, the next day.

For four.

Ingredients: 1-cm-thick slices of Panettone, sufficient to make two layers in a baking dish approx 8" x 4" ( I use a Panettone which already contains dried fruit and peel; if you use a plain one, then add a couple of tablespoons of each to the list of ingredients); 2 oz Butter; 2 Eggs; 10 fl oz Cream; 2 oz Sugar (or equivalent volume Splenda); 1 tsp Vanilla Essence; half a cup of fresh Raspberries; generous teaspoon each of ground Cinnamon and Demarara Sugar.

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C.

2. Butter one side of the slices of Panettone. Make a single layer of them in the base of a greased (or Trennwaxed) baking dish. Sprinkle with the Raspberries, and with half of the dried fruit and peel, if your Pannetone is the plain variety. Make a second layer with the remaining buttered slices of Panettone (and remaining dried fruit and peel, if appropriate).

3. In a bowl, whisk together the Cream, Eggs, Sugar (or Splenda) and Vanilla Essence. Pour this mixture over the Panettone slices, and leave to stand for half an hour.

4. Just before baking, sprinkle the surface of the pudding with Cinnamon and Demarara Sugar, and then bake in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes. Allow to cool down for five minutes or so before serving.