Bread and butter pudding with caramel cream

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3.

2. To make the caramel cream, heat the sugar in a frying pan, swirling every so often, until you have a dark caramel. Pour in 300ml/10fl oz of double cream. Whip the remaining double cream until it falls off the whisk in ribbons, and then fold it into the caramel cream mixture. Sieve into a clean bowl, cover and allow to set overnight.

3. To make the bread and butter pudding, scatter some of the dried fruit into the bottom of a shallow baking dish. Melt the butter over a medium heat. Brush the bread slices generously with the melted butter and put a layer on top of the dried fruit. Continue to layer like this until the fruit and bread is all used up, finishing with a layer of bread.

4. Mix together the eggs and sugar in a large heatproof bowl. Bring the milk and vanilla to a simmer and pour this over the egg mixture. Pour in the cream and mix, then strain though a fine sieve, discarding the vanilla pod. Pour the mixture over the bread, pushing it down to absorb all the liquid.

5. Bake for 40–50 minutes, until just set. Once cool, gently heat the jam in a saucepan over a low heat. Glaze the top of the pudding with the warm apricot jam.

6. To serve, cut out the bread and butter pudding into potions. Transfer to serving bowls and add a spoonful of the caramel cream alongside.