Coconutty Bread and Butter Pudding

Winter desserts: aren't they wonderful? And I've found a new one to add to my repertoire. It all started when I read about Malay Sweet Potato Donuts over at Kebun Malay-Kadazan girls blog. I like sweet potato, and I'm a sucker for sweet things, so I thought I'd try them and they were very nice, and very easy even for a frying-gumby like me to make. Then this recipe reminded me of a little book I have printed by Periplus called 'Classic Asian Cakes and Desserts'. I had a flick through, and the donuts happened to be in there, but I found another recipe I wanted to try: Coconut Bread Pudding.
I rummaged through the pantry and we had all the ingredients, so I made it - albeit quite modified - and we all tucked in and declared it Delicious (excepting MIL, who doesn't like bread pudding, but even she admitted it smelled pretty good), but I only remembered to take a photo towards the end.


Very glamorous...
So, being a good blogger and all, I needed to make it again (doesn't have anything to do with wanting to eat it again, and being home alone tonight so I can have a bigger serve, oh no, of course not...)

Here's the recipe as I made it (the original can be found in the book listed above):

COCONUTTY BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING
Serves 4.

Ingredients
1 TB softened butter
2 eggs
1/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup coconut milk or cream
2/3 cup milk
1 TSP vanilla essence
6 slices of sour dough bread
1/3 cup sultanas
1 TB of white sugar for sprinkling

Method
1. Lightly brush the base and sides of a casserole dish. Preheat the oven to 180c (350f)
2. Butter both sides of the pieces of bread and set aside.
3. Beat the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl. Pour in the coconut milk, milk and vanilla essence, and mix well.
4. Add the bread and sultanas to the mixture and soak together for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally so that it soaks evenly.
5. Place the bread and sultanas into your dish and pour any excess milk mixture over it. Sprinkle evenly with the extra sugar.
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until it is golden and any custard around the edges is set.
7. Allow to cool for 10 minutes or so before cutting and serving with cream and/or ice cream.
8. Eat and Enjoy!


[I have to say, despite our masses and masses of Asian travelling, I have never seen bread and butter pudding anywhere in Asia yet so I'm not sure what is so 'classic' about this, but it's tasty anyway and a nice twist on an English traditional pudding]