This is the king of bread and butter puddings: richly spiced, aromatic, irresistible. A favourite of India’s Mughal royalty, the dish combines pieces of bread fried in butter, and then baked in a sweetened milk simmered with saffron, cardamom and cinnamon. The aroma of the gently infusing spices will fill your kitchen with the sort of heady, festive warmth that will ward away winter blues.
Indian bread pudding (shahi tukra)
This recipe is worth making for the spiced milk alone. We have a pot of it gently simmering on the stove most weekends (with the cream swapped out for more milk), while we potter about the flat, pausing to have little mugfuls.
Prep 20 min
Cook 25 min
Serves 4-6
400g whole milk
400g double cream
2 large cinnamon sticks (50g)
12 green cardamom pods
2 pinches saffron
2 star anise
10 cloves
8 slices white bread
100g unsalted butter
125g granulated or caster sugar
1 handful chopped, toasted pistachios or almonds
1 small handful dried rose petals
Start by adding all the whole spices to the milk and cream in a large saucepan. Cover the pan, bring everything to a gentle simmer, then leave to infuse and simmer, covered, on the lowest possible heat for an hour.
Meanwhile, prepare the bread by slicing away the crusts and spreading both sides with a generous amount of butter.
In a large frying pan, fry the slices of bread on both sides over a medium heat until they become a hazelnut brown. Once cool, slice each in half diagonally and arrange in a baking dish.
Once the milk has had enough time to draw out the flavours of the spices, pour it through a sieve to remove them. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve, then pour the milk over the bread slices.
Bake at 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4 for 25 minutes. Scatter over the nuts and rose petals, and serve.
