Bread and butter pudding - two ways

Today's post isn't so much a recipe as a generic framework for making one of my favourite puddings in any flavour you want. Bread and butter pudding is a dish my mum has made on a vaguely regular basis for years. It's especially perfect when you have guests - it can be prepared in advance (in fact it's better if prepared in advance) and then you can just stick it in the oven for half an hour or so before serving. Easy peasy. It's crispy on top, and soft and moist inside. Plus when it looks as good as this, you're bound to please everybody.

You can make this pudding in pretty much any flavour you like - here, I made one with orange marmalade, and one with Nutella and Marshmallow Fluff. (I asked on my Facebook page if I was allowed to call this 's'mores flavour' even though it has no graham crackers - apparently some of you are pretty defensive of s'mores!)

You can basically put any sort of sweet spread in your bread and butter pudding - lemon curd, strawberry jam, chocolate spread... or, if you want to be really traditional, leave out the spread and just stick with some juicy sultanas and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

If you're using a spread that's quite tart (e.g. lemon curd or marmalade), you'll probably want to sprinkle a bit of sugar between your layers, and on top - you can see the sugary topping on this marmalade version (above). I left it off the Nutella and Marshmallow Fluff version (below) because I thought it would be sweet enough already.

If in doubt, stick to using plain white bread in your pudding, since it'll go with any flavours you put with it. However, my mum also makes a fantastic version with chocolate chip brioche (can you hear me drooling?), so if you're feeling adventurous, you can play around with the bread you use too.

I made my bread and butter puddings in individual serving dishes because I wanted to make a couple of flavours, but feel free to make one big version instead if you'd prefer. And don't forget the cream.