This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
There are some dishes you come across quite regularly when you search for food references in the world of fiction. (As I patently do.) When I was researching Five Books for Food Lovers last week, I found a pudding that appeared more than once. Bread and Butter Pudding, in fact. Now some of you, right now, are gagging at the thought. This pudding certainly divides the nation. But for others I'm sure it conjures up family meals, warmth, cosy winter evenings…or maybe that's just me. I would eat mine with my parents and sister as a child, a pile of sultanas at the side of my plate, carefully picked put of the bready custard so as not to lose any of the important bits.
Bread and butter pudding was mentioned in three out of the five books listed last week. Sally by Freya North, Bookends by Jane Green and chocolate bread pudding was mentioned in Jennifer Weiner Good In Bed. Going through my extensive research (i.e an excel spreadsheet), I also see Jane Green has used bread and butter pudding again in Babyville. Therefore I thought it only fair that this week, the pudding gets a post of its very own.
In Bookends and Sally the pudding is used, not unlike my own circumstances, to add depth and feeling to family time.
Sally has prepared a breathtaking bread and butter pudding for herself and her Aunt Celia. Celia is sister in law to Sally's late father and the person she admires most in the world. The bond between the two of them is unbreakable and Sally is much closer to her Aunt Celia than her own mother. For Sally, Aunt Celia is her family and the person she chooses to go to when struggling with personal issues. They have many cosy meals together and the bread and butter pudding comes after grilled trout smothered in butter and almonds.
Then we have the bread and butter pudding in Bookends, made this time by Lucy. Cath and best friend, Si, often go over to Lucy and Josh's house. For Cath, these three people are her family. Three of them have been friends since university and they have been together through thick and thin. Lucy often cooks for them and her food is always proper, wholesome, scrummy, delicious food.
The brilliant thing about bread and butter pudding is that it is so adaptable. In Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner it is adapted into a chocolate bread pudding. You can add orange peel, leave out the sultanas if you don't like (like me) or use different types of bread like brioche or hot cross buns.
My pudding (pictured) was based on the BBC Good Food recipe Hot Cross Bread and Lemon Pudding.