Blueberry and lemon bread and butter pudding breakfast

This recipe came about because my family love eggy bread/ french toast. One day I was making a bread and butter pudding for a dessert and realised that I could in fact leave out the sugar and make it as a breakfast as it contains all the same ingredients as the french toast just slightly more milk. We always serve our french toast with berries so it seemed the perfect marriage to pop them in while it baked and a sprinkling of lemon just to lift it a bit. Its a perfect way to use up bread that is a few days old. In fact to works best with bread that is not really fresh unless you are using gluten free bread in which case sometimes it can be a bit more delicate when it is a few ays old so just be extra careful when spreading the butter.

If I wanted to serve this as a dessert I would add in double cream too so I have added a variation at the bottom of the page for a dessert option.

This serves 4-5 people but obviously if you only want to serve two people then halve the quantities and likewise for more people adjust accordingly.  Or do as I do which is make up in little bowls to vary the fruit fillings. You can make it the night before ready to pop in the oven in the morning.

Ingredients

4 eggs
50g really softened butter or a favourite spread or margarine if prefer I just prefer using butter for this, you can of course skip this stage entirely and just melt a tiny bit of butter and brush it on the top. 

300ml milk, whatever your preferred milk is.

zest of one lemon

large handful of blueberries, about 150-200g 

Drizzle (about 1 tblsp) of  maple syrup or honey, or more to taste

About 8-10 slices of bread, that is 1-2 days old,  buttered, crusts removed and cut into triangles. I use Warburtons gluten free unsliced sourdough bread as I prefer that one. Use your judgement on how much bread to use, the bread I use does not have large slices so if you have a large sliced loaf you may need less bread.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/ gas mark 4

2. Grease an ovenproof dish. Choose one that is about 25cm by 18cm and not too shallow, or use several smaller dishes.
3. Butter your bread both sides and then remove the crusts, (I like to do this carefully so I get no butter on the crusts so I can then use them to make breadcrumbs but you can feed them to the birds or leave them on even!) Warning this can be messy so do make sure you use really well softened butter to avoid tearing the bread too much although don't worry if you do it will overlap anyway and bake just fine.

4. Whisk the eggs really well with the milk and syrup/honey or sugar.

5. Pour the mix through a sieve to make a smoother custard mix into another bowl/jug.

6. Arrange half the bread triangles into the bottom of the dish, overlapping as you go. 

7. Scatter half of the blueberries and lemon zest over the bread.

8. Pour over half of the eggy milk mix over the bread.

9. Layer more bread triangles on top and then pour over the rest of the egg, milk mix, scatter with the rest of the blueberries and lemon zest. At this point you really want to see it looking really soggy, don't worry that eggy milk mix will get absorbed by the bread as it soaks and then cooks.

10. Cover and allow to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour to allow to soak up the mixture. I allow it to soak overnight.

11. Bake for 30-45 mins until baked and golden and no uncooked egg mix around the edges.

12. Serve

Variations

I also use leftover croissants, pain au chocolate, and is amazing with panattone

Dessert

To serve as a dessert I would also add in 100 ml double cream,  add extra maple syrup or honey. OR 90g sugar and a sprinkling of demerara sugar on top just before baking adds a lovely crunch. 

1. Follow the same method as above just add your cream to the milk mixture and beat well. 

Blueberry and cinnamon - layer with blueberries and a dusting of cinnamon
Sultana - Add a sprinkling of sultanas to the layers
Chocolate- add plain chocolate chips
Chocolate and orange_ add chocolate and grated orange zest, candied orange
Pannetonne_ Same principle but use pane tonne instead of bread
Croissant - Use croissants or pain au chocolate