Eight years ago on my blog I shared my recipe for Bread and Butter Pudding with Blueberries. It was one of two recipes I featured in a post about quick and easy baked puddings. In this article I’m retelling and expanding on the story of the humble bread pudding, which (as I discovered) has a long history.

This post is also a sequel to Bread deliveries in the 50s & 60s: A nostalgic look back (August 14, 2025), which proved to be a most popular topic on Facebook and amongst my readers.

You’ll find my recipe for Bread and Butter Pudding with Blueberries at the end of this post.

Bread and Butter Pudding is one of my long-standing simple go-to desserts. Only recently I experimented with the basic recipe by adding fresh blueberries instead of sultanas.

I made my first Bread and Butter Pudding in the mid 1970s. For me, a bread pudding was a novel dessert. I couldn’t remember my mother ever making or serving a bread pudding as a family dessert.

However, I suspected bread puddings have a long history. So, in preparing this (and my earlier) article, I investigated the origin and history of bread puddings. Where did they come from? When? In what form? How have they changed?

The story of bread puddings

People have been enjoying puddings (both sweet and savoury) since ancient times. Bread pudding, in particular, has been made by home cooks in the western world (where bread is a staple food) for centuries. Food historians tell us that frugal cooks who didn’t want to waste stale bread devised the sweet bread pudding.

Initially, the sweet bread pudding was very basic. It comprised bread, milk and a sweetener. Home cooks used any kind of bread, whether sliced or in the form of soft breadcrumbs. They soaked the bread in milk, added a sweetener, then baked it in an oven. The addition of fat, such as suet (a firm, hard animal fat that’s solid at room temperature), and dried fruit such as sultanas, raisins and currants, came later. While most bread puddings were oven-baked, some were steamed.

Bread-and-butter puddings originated in Britain in the 17^th or 18^th century. They combined buttered bread or breadcrumbs and butter separately, a mixture of milk and eggs, a sweetener and (sometimes) dried or fresh fruit. The resulting mixture was baked in an oven or placed in a pudding basin and cooked over boiling water in a saucepan on the stovetop. Essentially, a bread-and-butter pudding is a custard with the addition of bread and butter.

A custard, by definition, is a mixture of milk and eggs thickened by gentle heating. Custards, which may be sweet or savoury, also have a long culinary history. In Britain and France, for example, custards baked in a pastry shell (custard tarts) were popular as far back as the Middle Ages.

A bread-and-butter pudding is not new

From the earliest days of British settlement in Australia, a bread-and-butter pudding was a staple dessert for many families. It was one way of making good use of stale or leftover bread. I think every nineteenth century Australian home cook must have known how to make a bread pudding, whether steamed or baked.

In an 1867 edition of the Melbourne Leader, I found the following recipe for Steamed Bread and Butter Pudding under the heading “Useful Puddings”. Note: This pudding is cooked in a basin over boiling water in a saucepan on the stovetop.

STEAMED BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING

Lay your bread and butter in a pudding basin, with layers of apricot or other jam between; add a custard as for a baked pudding, and then steam it. When served, pour a custard over it.

Here’s another nineteenth century recipe for a bread-and-butter pudding. It appeared in an 1880 edition of The Queenslander (Brisbane). This recipe requires the pudding to be oven-baked.

BREAD-AND-BUTTER PUDDING

Spread some thin slices of bread with butter, lay them in a piedish with a little sugar and half a cup of milk; let it stand an hour or two; beat two eggs with one cup of milk, pour over the bread and butter, and bake half an hour.

Bread puddings and twentieth century Australian home cooks

From my research, I’ve discovered that bread puddings remained common desserts for families in the first half of the twentieth century.

Not that a bread pudding was every family’s favourite dessert. Here are several quotes from Australian newspapers in the 1940s, which reveal attitudes towards bread pudding and advice as to how to make the dish more interesting:

Bread pudding can be stodgy and uninteresting, but here is a recipe which will make new friends for an old dish. [Recipe follows.] … Introduce completely different flavorings for your pudding. … In place of plain bread, use raisin, cinnamon, nut or wholemeal bread to vary the flavor. Use 1/2 cup of strained honey instead of sugar, and substitute 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract for vanilla. Cover top of the pudding with marshmallows after it is cooked, melt and brown lightly. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped raisins, dates, figs or nuts before baking. Spread top of baked pudding with jelly, jam or orange marmalade, top with a meringue of whipped egg whites, and brown slowly. Coconut may be sprinkled on meringue before baking. Coconut may also be added to the pudding before baking. (Melbourne’s Age, 1941)

Duller than a dish of bread pudding! That expression was a favourite, but not anymore. Because we find bread pudding very, very interesting when its ingredients include brown sugar and cinnamon. (Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative, 1943)

Neither my mother nor my grandmother made bread pudding. When I was growing up (in the 1950s and 1960s) it was not one of our family desserts. I’ve often wondered why, given that bread pudding was reputedly so common.

Why my mother never made bread puddings

In preparing this article, I looked for a recipe for Bread and Butter Pudding in the Puddings section of my mother’s 1934 and 1949 cookery books. It is not there.

However, almost by accident, I discovered a recipe entitled Bread Pudding in the Invalid Cookery section of the 1934 cookery book! Perhaps that’s why neither my mother nor my grandmother made it as a family dessert. You only ate Bread Pudding when you were sick!

I’ve included the recipe below. Note that it combines breadcrumbs, lemon-flavoured milk, one beaten egg, sugar and dried fruit, but no butter.

BREAD PUDDING

Cut the rind of half a lemon very thinly, and boil it in 1 pint of milk. Strain, and add 2ozs of breadcrumbs, 1 tablespoonful of powdered white sugar, and 2ozs of raisins, stoned and chopped; or preserved cherries, a little grated nutmeg, and a well-beaten egg. Mix thoroughly, and let it stand for an hour. Then put into a buttered pie dish, and bake gently for an hour and a half. Serve with custard or cream.

I think there is another reason why my mother never made a bread pudding. As I recall, she used our leftover bread to make breadcrumbs, either soft or dry.

To make soft crumbs (to stuff a chicken, for example), she would scrape the inside of the old bread with a fork. To make dry breadcrumbs she placed thin slices of bread on a tray in a slow oven to dry out, then used a rolling pin to crush the dry bread into fine crumbs. In our household there was never any leftover or stale bread to warrant making Bread and Butter Pudding.

I made my first Bread and Butter Pudding in the mid-1970s.

By then, this simple dessert was coming back into vogue. For me, Bread and Butter Pudding was a novelty. I didn’t have any preconceived ideas about it.

I found a recipe under the heading “Milk Puddings” in one of my earliest cookery books, a 1970 edition of The Coronation Cookery Book compiled by The Country Women’s Association of New South Wales (NSW). Through the eyes of an inexperienced cook it looked easy to make so I tried it.

I’ve used this recipe – and variations of it – ever since. Unlike my mother, I don’t make my own breadcrumbs. So, whenever I have leftover bread and I don’t want to freeze it I make Bread and Butter Pudding.

Typically, I use grain bread. It’s the bread I usually buy as it’s more nutritious and filling. Moreover, it gives the pudding a nutty flavour. I spread each slice with butter and red jam. Like most Australians today, I buy my bread wrapped and pre-sliced, whether it’s a sandwich loaf from the supermarket or a specialty loaf from a bakery.

Do you know when factory baked and wrapped pre-sliced bread became a popular alternative to locally baked bread?

George Weston (Australia) Pty Ltd launched its Tip Top brand of wrapped pre-sliced bread nationally as early as 1958. It was an innovation that revolutionised the bread industry in Australia. Its success paralleled the growing popularity of self-service grocery stores and supermarkets. Customers took to the Tip Top product for a number of reasons. They no longer had to slice their own loaves, which saved them time and effort. Wrapped bread stayed fresh and lasted longer, so they could buy several loaves at one time, eliminating the need to buy bread daily. Consumers appreciated the consistency and reliability of the product.

A few years ago I had to prepare a meal for guests at short notice. After deciding on the main course, I sought a dessert that is quick and easy to make, yet inviting and nutritious. Blueberries were cheap at the time and I had a punnet of fresh blueberries in the refrigerator. “Why not make Bread and Butter Pudding and use blueberries instead of sultanas? Blueberries will take the basic pudding to the next level,” I mused. “After all, blueberries are one of the top 10 superfoods.”

Bread and Butter Pudding with Blueberries was the result. Needless to say, this creation was a winner. Our guests loved it, I loved it, and so did my husband.

BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING WITH BLUEBERRIES

Serves 6

Ingredients

6 slices of grain or wholemeal bread
butter (for spreading on the bread)
red jam (such as plum, raspberry or strawberry)
3 eggs
1 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2½ cups milk

1 punnet (200g) fresh blueberries

For sprinkling on top
ground nutmeg
desiccated coconut

Method

1. Spread butter on three slices of bread and jam on the other three.
2. Depending on the shape of your baking dish, cut the bread into triangles, squares or rectangles. For my circular dish, I used triangles.
3. Arrange a layer of the buttered bread butter-side down in the bottom of the baking dish. Drop a handful of blueberries on top of the bread. Repeat using bread spread with jam and more blueberries. Depending on the size of your dish, you will probably need a third layer of bread and blueberries.
4. Add the eggs, sugar, vanilla and milk to a bowl and beat until well mixed.
5. Pour the egg mixture gently over the layers of bread, making sure all the bread is covered. Gently press the bread into the liquid so it is absorbed.
6. Sprinkle a little ground nutmeg and desiccated coconut on top.
7. Bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees Celcius or 160 degrees Celcius if using a fan-forced oven) for 35-40 minutes. The pudding will be ready when the top is lightly browned and the mixture has risen.
8. Set the pudding aside to cool a little before serving. Serve with a scoop of vanilla icecream. This pudding is delicious served while it is warm. However, it can be stored in the refrigerator and served the next day and it will still be delicious.

Source: “The Coronation Cookery Book” compiled by The Country Women’s Association of New South Wales, 10^th Edition – Revised, 1970. Adapted by Judy Salecich.

ANOTHER PUDDING TO TRY

Fail-Me-Never Steamed Pudding

August 3, 2016

This story, which I published on my blog ten years ago, is all about puddings. It features the recipe for another wonderful dessert that is super easy to make and, as its name suggests, is foolproof. You might like to try this recipe as well.

READ NOW >

REFERENCES