Maltese bread pudding!

On Saturday afternoon, amidst preparations for the big Sunday lunch, I decided to throw in random left-overs in a bowl and prepare, what we Maltese call, a ‘pudina’ — the traditional Maltese bread pudding! This was my first attempt at trying this recipe since usually I leave traditional things for Mum to do… you know Mums are always good at cooking traditional food! However, here’s my Saturday rainy afternoon inspired version.

Pudina Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3/4 of a stale Maltese loaf
• 150ml skimmed milk
• 1 pckt of sultanas
• 1 pckt dried apricots, chopped
• 2 bananas, mashed
• 2 apples, peeled, cored and cubed
• rind of 1 orange, finely chopped
• 2 tblsp cocoa powder
• 200g roasted hazelnuts, chopped
• 200g butter
• 200g sugar

[caption id=”attachment_612" align=”aligncenter” width=”500" caption=”Maltese bread pudding”]

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Place the loaf of bread in a bowl and add the warm milk, leave bread to soak until soft and then, with your fingertips, crumble bread into small pieces. In the meantime, beat the butter and sugar in a mixer until this turns smooth and creamy. Now you can add the soaked bread to the butter mixture and continue to add all the other ingredients one by one. Mix everything well with a wooden spoon; if the consistency is too liquid do not worry, you can always add some flour. Pour mixture into a buttered, oven-proof dish, and cook in a pre-heated oven of 180 degrees celsius for around 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Enjoy warm or cold, maybe with a blob of custard!