World cup of flavours

Hey guys, the rugby world cup is almost upon us and I for one am as excited as ever to be proudly South-African! I was thinking of posting World cup themed recipes the next few months to celebrate the awesome occasion! Tonight is officially the coldest night of the year in Johannesburg so far so I thought I'd share a homemade bread pudding recipe that is awesome for baking during the winter time.  This dish is served best with a nice serving of cream. For all of the South-Africans reading this blog, we are making this recipe with some AMARULA LIQUER! Does not get any better. Here we go:

INGREDIENTS

100g butter 

250g French bread - slightly stale and cut into 1cm slices 

50g sultanas 

600ml milk 

85ml double cream 

1 teaspoon vanilla essence 

6 large eggs 

200g caster sugar 

125ml Amarula liqueur 

For the Amarula cream: 

150ml Amarula liqueur

310ml double cream

How to prepare

		Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.
		Use some of the butter to grease a large shallow ovenproof dish. Spread the remaining butter on both sides of each piece of bread.
		Place the buttered bread into the dish. (You don't need to be neat and precise about this). Sprinkle the sultanas over the bread.
		In a medium saucepan bring the milk, cream and vanilla essence to a boil; watch the saucepan closely to avoid it boiling over.
		Meanwhile in a mixing bowl whisk together the eggs and caster sugar.
		As soon as the milk/cream mixture comes to a boil remove it from the heat and add it to the eggs/sugar mixture; whisking well as you go. Stir in the Amarula.
		Pour the Amarula custard mixture over the bread and allow it to soak for 10 minutes then transfer to the oven.
		Bake for about 30 minutes or until it is golden and set with just a slight wobble in the middle. Remove from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes.
		Amarula Cream: Whisk the thickened cream into soft peaks. Add the Amarula liqueur and whisk again back to soft peaks.
		Serve the pudding with a big dollop of the Amarula cream