My sister took me to a community food place. I found 4 small squares ciabatta bread that expired 4 days ago. I have fresh blueberries, craisins, leftover vanilla custard, and a small piece of butter. I decided to make it a bread and butter pudding.
Google: “Ciabatta is a type of Italian bread known for its airy texture, crisp crust, and oblong shape. It is made with basic ingredients like flour, water, salt, and yeast, often with added olive oil. Whole wheat ciabatta can provide fiber and nutrients, and its slow fermentation process may make it easier to digest compared to some other breads. It is versatile, suitable for sandwiches, paninis, as a side dish, or for dipping in olive oil and vinegar.”
“Yes, Italians eat a version of bread and butter pudding made with panettone, a traditional sweet bread. This version, sometimes called “Budino di Pane” or “Miascia,” repurposes leftover panettone and is seen as a tasty holiday dessert. In some Italian regions like Molise, paprika is common, used in salami ventricina and the dish pampanella. It’s also in Calabrian ‘Nduja, a spicy sausage, and some variations of Pollo alla Romana. Additionally, paprika is in some Italian seasoning blends, contributing colour and flavour. Yes, Italians use nutmeg powder in their cooking. It’s a common ingredient, particularly in savoury dishes like pasta filling in tortellini and cannelloni, meatloaf, and in the classic Italian white sauce, besciamella. Nutmeg is known as “noce moscata” in Italian.“
Why not use ciabatta bread instead of panettone? Thank you, God, for ciabatta bread instead of Brussels sprouts. It’s a beautiful, creative, refreshing, and delicious meal. Let’s turn stale ciabatta into a new dish!!!
Ingredients
4 small squares ciabatta bread, halved
3 eggs
60 g butter, melted
1/4 c castor sugar
125 g blueberries
125 g craisins
350-400 ml vanilla custard
1-2 Tbs castor sugar
1/2 tsp paprika powder
a pinch of nutmeg powder
water
Method
Preheat oven 180 degrees C. Grease the big deep oven proof bowl with butter. Put enough water into a saucepan and put the hard rock ciabatta inside. Bring to the boil, to softened ciabatta. Once softened, drain really well. Place on to a lined plate with paper towel. Let it sit for 2-5 minutes.
Meantime, wash blueberries and pat dry. Next weight craisins. Beat vanilla custard, 1/8 c castor sugar, eggs, nutmeg powder and paprika powder together until well mixed using a fork or a beater if you prefer. Set aside. Now roughly tear ciabatta to pieces. Arrange them in a single layer; make sure no gaps.
Scatter half blueberries, half craisins, and the remaining 1/8 c caster sugar. Next, arrange the remaining ciabatta pieces, making sure there are no gaps. Followed with the remaining half of the blueberries and craisins on top. Now, beat the vanilla custard-egg mixture again a couple of times.
Then pour over ciabatta pieces, pressing down with a metal big spoon firmly to compress the pudding and also helps ciabatta absorb vanilla custard eggs mixture. Sprinkle 1 Tbs castor sugar all over the top. Bake it for 40 minutes first. After time up, bring out a little bit the tray to check the consistency, if still wobbly and looks liquidy, put back in further 20 minutes.
When 20 minutes time up, pull the tray out a bit, check again the consistency, if it had turned golden brown in the middle with the edges darker; then it’s done. Switch off oven and leave in the oven with door close for 35 minutes. After 35 minutes, bring out ciabatta bread pudding to wire rack to cool slightly about 5-10 minutes.
Serve it hot or warm if you like it. You can serve it with ice cream or cream. I had mine warm and on its own. Enjoy!!!
Note: Oven temperatures and baking times may vary. I might have used too much vanilla custard, and also ciabatta might be too wet. I had baked it all for about 60 minutes. Do cover it if it browns too fast.
You can use panettone or any bread of your choice. You can use full cream milk instead of vanilla custard.
You can add any fruits of your choices. You can omit nutmeg powder and use and spices: oregano, basil or Italian seasoning. You can omit paprika and use chili powder instead. You can add rum or frangelico or fruit liquor.
https://helenscchin.com/2025/07/22/ciabatta-bread-pudding-with-blueberries-and-craisins/
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