Bread and Breakfast with Dan Lepard and Jo Pratt

I still can't quite believe I am on the radio every Sunday. So today’s BBC radio show I nick named Bread and Breakfast. I shall be talking to Jo Pratt the Food Editor for GLAMOUR Magazine. We prerecorded the interview earlier in the week and talked about children and the fact that parents are facing such a battle to get children to eat healthily in the morning. Reasearch shows that a third of them are going to school on an empty stomach as their parents simply dont have time to argue!

The research carried out by a leading bread manufacturer showed that a quarter of families row nearly every day about eating well, with children resorting to crafty tricks to avoid food that is good for them. I can certainly agree it’s hard - even my three try to avoid their crusts and hide their greens under their forks Jo is just lovely - with 2 young children of her own and having just written several recipe books she’s got some great tips and has worked with the likes of Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Gary Rhodes in the past and Jo and her recipes have appeared on a number of TV programmes such as Daily Cooks Challenge and Saturday Kitchen, and I think we both agreed it takes very little effort to to make a slice of toast in the morning.

Taking about bread with Jo lead me on to looking into making bread so I’ve invited Wendy in to talk about the Artisan bread making course about to start in the new Shires Cookery School in East Haddon. She's kindly offered a day's bread making course in June to a Prepped reader who can correctly tell me on the comments below what bread they will learn to make on the course and why they would be the best person to send on this day. The winner will be picked at random on the 25th of February (please be sure your details mean you can be contacted by your login)

In the mean time I was slightly star stuck as I got to interview one of my food heroes Baker and food writer Dan Lepard. To me Dan is one of the most fabulous food writers on the UK scene. He has a weekly column in the Guardian and is one of the most delightful people I have spoken to about baking I can ever remember.

I used one of Dan’s recipes from his book The Handmade Loaf to make my bread pudding with. It’s a super book and whilst I know that Dan is writing another fabulous book at the moment I really love this one!

Star Anise and Orange Bread Pudding

I don’t suppose we often think of bread pudding as a glamorous dish, but this is a seriously gorgeous pudding that as you can see from the photo, is met with delight in our house! This particular dish I was inspired to make from my father in law, Brain Dunstone of Boughton.. The star anise gave a delightful twist and the bitter orange marmalade tempered the sweetness, whilst the eggs and cream form a custard. It serves generously 10 – 12, but we eat it over 2 -3 days and I sent part of this one back with my photographer Nicky Callis - it was the least I could do to say thank her for these lovely photos!

Serves 10 – 12

Prep time 20 minutes

Cooking time 1 hour 20

Freezes No

Size of dish 9cm deep, 32cm long and 27cm wide

775g of white tin loaf

275g Rasins

140g caster sugar

Zest of 1 orange

1.5l of whole milk

600ml single cream

8 medium eggs

7 star anise

3 or 4 tbs of orange marmalade

1 Preheat the oven to 180 (between gas mark 4 and 5.) Slice the bread into 1.5 cm slices.

2 Arrange the slices in a large deep dish, scattering the raisins and sugar evenly between each layer. You will get about 3 layers or so depending on the thickness of your slices. Keep 3 or 4 spoons of sugar in reserve to use later on. Bear in mind you need to leave a little room at the top, as the pudding will rise as it cooks.

3 Evenly distribute the orange zest over the top of the pudding.

4 Pour the milk, cream and eggs in a jug and whisk to evenly distribute the egg.

5 Pour gently over the bread and using the tips of your fingers gently press into the bread to ensure the liquid is distributed throughout.

6 Sprinkled the remaining sugar and add the star anise over the top and pop into the oven. After an hour and 20 minutes check that the pudding is risen and golden. If it is not golden cook for a further 10 minutes and check again.

7 Remove for the oven and glaze by gently spooning over 3 – 4 tablespoons of marmalade whilst the pudding is still hot.

8 Remove the star anise. Serve either hot of cold with custard or cream