Recipes: Queen of puddings | Cheese and tomato baked pudding | Malted bread and butter pudding with orange, lemon and nutmeg

At first glance you might think today’s recipes will all be sweet, but this is not the case – bread forms the base for savoury as well as sweet puddings. But the bread must be baked. Too many people assume that all bread is baked, whereas so much of what we buy and eat is steamed. And steamed bread, when crumbed and made into dishes of all sorts – stuffings, sauces, puddings – gives an inferior result. Baked bread, on the other hand, is the basis for all manner of delicious and convenient recipes.

The inspiration for this week’s recipe selection came when eating the best of all Queen of puddings at Rocpool, the excellent restaurant in Inverness. Queen of puds is a classic British recipe, but it varies according to who makes it. It must be sufficiently lemon-flavoured, and when made using fresh raspberries instead of raspberry jam it is sublime. It must also have a dense meringue top.

A savoury bread pudding can have all manner of flavours, but today the one I give you contains cheese and tomato. Another classic bread-based pudding is bread and butter pudding, but this is generally stodgy and dull. Yet if you make it using Soreen, or any other sticky malted fruit loaf, it is outstanding. I use more yolks than whole eggs in the creamy custard which sets around the buttered slices of malted fruity bread, to give a softer set. The scattering of Demerara sugar over the surface just before baking time adds a delicious contrasting crunch.

Queen of puddings

Serves 6

I tend to make individual puddings, in  buttered ramekins.

1 pint/570ml milk

2oz/55g butter

finely grated rind of 2 lemons – both well washed and dried before grating

11oz/310g caster sugar

4oz/110g fresh baked white breadcrumbs

4 large eggs, yolks separated from the whites

1 lb/453g fresh raspberries

Thoroughly butter 6 ramekins.

Heat the milk, with the butter, finely grated lemon rind and 3oz/85g of the sugar stirred into the warming milk until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved. Stir in the breadcrumbs and leave till cool. Beat the yolks then mix them thoroughly into the cooled milk and breadcrumb mixture, and divide evenly between the 6 buttered ramekins.

Divide the raspberries evenly and put them on top of the contents of each ramekin, then bake in a moderate heat, 350F/180C/Gas Mark 4, till set, about 25-30 minutes. The raspberries will collapse onto the setting lemon filling  beneath them. Cool.

Whisk up the egg whites with a pinch of salt, until stiff. Then, whisking all the time, add the remaining sugar, a spoonful at a time.

When all the sugar is whisked in, divide the meringue evenly between the 6 ramekins, piling it on top of the cooled raspberries and lemon pudding beneath.

Bake in a low oven, 200F/100C/Gas Mark 1, till the meringue is lightly coloured, about 25 minutes.

Alternatively, with a blowtorch held about 6in/15cm from the meringue surface, blast each meringue instead of baking them.

Serve with whipped double cream, or with crème fraîche.

Cheese and  tomato baked pudding

Serves 6

1 pint/570ml milk

2 fat cloves of garlic, skinned and chopped finely

1 level teaspoon salt and about 15 grinds of black pepper

4oz/110g fresh white breadcrumbs

4 large eggs

6 ripe tomatoes, skinned, halved and seeds scooped away, and the tomatoes chopped finely, on a board with a large knife, chopped into a pulp.

6oz/170g grated cheddar cheese

about 8 torn-up basil leaves

Thoroughly butter an ovenproof dish, about 3 pint/1.7 litre capacity.

Heat the milk with the finely chopped garlic, salt and black pepper. Stir the fresh breadcrumbs into the hot milk, take the pan off the heat and leave  to cool.

Beat the eggs together well, and mix them into the cooled breadcrumbs, with the tomato pulp and grated cheese, and the torn-up basil leaves.

Pour this into the buttered dish and bake in a moderate heat, 350F/180C/Gas Mark 4, till set in the centre when you gently shake the dish – about 35-40 minutes. This is good served with a mustardy vinaigrette dressed leaf salad.

Malted bread and butter pudding with orange, lemon and nutmeg

Serves 6

2 Soreen malted fruit loaves - you can find these in most supermarkets

soft butter for spreading

finely grated rind of 1 lemon, and finely grated rind of 1 orange

2 large eggs plus 2 large yolks beaten together

¾ pint/426ml single cream mixed well with

a good grating of nutmeg

2 rounded tablespoons Demerara sugar – for scattering over the surface of the partially baked pudding

Slice each malt loaf, then slice each half diagonally, and butter each bit. Butter a shallow ovenproof dish thoroughly. Arrange the buttered triangles of malt bread overlapping in the dish.

Mix the grated lemon and orange rinds into the beaten eggs, yolks and single cream, and pour this over the bread in the buttered dish. Bake in a moderate heat, 350F/180C/Gas Mark 4, till when you gently shake the dish the centre barely wobbles – the centre is the last part to set.

This should take between 25 and 30 minutes. Approximately 10 minutes before cooking time is up, take the dish out of the oven and evenly scatter the Demerara sugar over the surface of the pudding. This forms a crisp crust. Serve warm.