Pudin de Ensaimada Deluxe

This recipe was inspired by some friends of ours who live in Muro and are such keen and fabulous cooks that they have not one, not even two, but three kitchens!!  Just like most of us, they have an "ordinary" kitchen in their house, but then in their yard they have a professional outdoor covered kitchen, and also a wooden shed with a massive stainless steel bread oven.  Going to their house for lunch is like Christmas, whatever time of year it is.

One of their signature dishes is a sublime creme caramel made with dulce de leche and coconut milk, baked for 5 hours at 50°C.  This was the inspiration for my Pudin de Ensaimada Deluxe.

Many countries have their own version of pudin - a recipe to turn stale bread into something delicious.  In England we have bread pudding or bread and butter pudding.  In Spain, we have pudin, and whilst it can be made with stale bread, the luxury version uses day-old ensaimada.  And my deluxe version turns it up another notch :)

 

Ingredients

NOTE: As with most of my recipes, this is a forgiving and flexible dish.  Both the ingredients and quantities listed here are indicative only, if you have more or less of anything, it will still turn out great!

120g day-old (or older!) ensaimada - any kind of ensaimada you like, I usually have ensaimada de crema quemada

A drizzle of caramel sauce or dulce de leche - home made or store bought - I prefer the buttery toffee colour rather than the dark treacle colour

60g Raisins, sultanas, cranberries - whatever dried fruit you fancy.  I imagine you could also use fresh or frozen fruit if you like - raspberries, blueberries.  And/or chunks of chocolate

Rum or whatever liquor you like to plump up the dried fruit.  It's optional, leave it out if you don't want to use it, or use some warm apple juice, or just warm water

60g walnut pieces - I usually crush them a bit in a pestle and mortar

Coconut milk and/or regular milk - I usually use a tin of coconut milk and add some regular milk.  Use any kind of milk you like.

140g Sugar

Zest of one lemon, zest of one orange, one cinnamon stick

4 Eggs  (use 3 or 4 eggs per half litre of milk)

Vanilla essence

Method

Soak sultanas/raisins/cranberry in rum, microwave 30 secs

Peel the zest from one orange and one lemon, add to saucepan with coconut milk, milk, sugar and a cinnamon stick.  Bring nearly to the boil, then cover, take off heat and leave to infuse.

At this point you can take a break for as long as you like

Put a drizzle caramel sauce / dulce de leche in bottom of tin.  I don't put much at all.

Top with torn up bits of ensaimada walnut pieces and rum-soaked fruit, then more ensaimada.

You can also take a break at this point if you like. 

Whisk up the eggs, then add them to the milk mixture.  I remove the orange/lemon peel and cinnamon stick before adding the eggs but it doesn't really matter, because we are going to strain the mixture anyway.

Add the vanilla essence, if you remember.  I often forget :)

Pour the egg and milk mixture through a sieve over the ensaimada/fruit/nut mix in the tin.  If you can't be bothered to strain the mixture through a sieve, I'm sure it wouldn't matter, but I like the smoother texture it gives.

Bake in a bain marie in the oven at 140ºC/180ºC for about 40 minutes to an hour - until the custard sets.  I'm not sure how essential the bain marie is - I've never tried without it.

Cooked, in the bain marie, in the oven

 

Leave to cool, and then refrigerate.  To serve, turn out upside down onto a serving platter.  You can add whipped cream, but I really don't think it's necessary.

Keeps well, for a couple of days in the fridge.

It doesn't look particularly pretty, but it is delicious - this is what was left after dinner one day, I forgot to take a picture of it whole!!