Bread and Butter Baklava

Last week I posted a recipe for left-over Colomba, this week I'm posting a recipe for using this left over Greek Easter bread called Tsoureki.



I've decided to smash together two iconic dishes - the English bread and butter pudding and Greek baklava to create the monster I call, Bread and Butter baklava.

I've simply replaced the filo pastry for slices of tsoureki while leaving the traditional baklava filling fairly unchanged - a mix of walnut, almond, pistachio, cinnamon and honey. Instead of soaking the baklava in a syrup, I've used the bread butter pudding custard flavoured with extra cinnamon and sweetened with honey.

Bread and Butter Baklava

sliced Tsoureki bread
softened butter
Filling:
100 grams walnuts
100 grams pistachio
50 grams almonds
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
50 grams honey, warmed
Custard:
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
ground cinnamon
25 grams soft brown sugar
25 grams honey

slivered almonds & honey, extra for topping


Make the filling:
Place the nuts and cinnamon into a processor and pulse until evenly chopped - be careful not to overdue it, you don't want it too finely chopped, you want some texture from the nuts. Put this into a bowl and drizzle in the warmed honey (warming the honey makes it a lot easier to work with) - stir to combine and then taste - you may want to add more cinnamon.

Make the custard:
Lightly whisk the eggs with milk, cream, cinnamon honey and brown sugar, until the sugar has dissolved.

Assemble the pudding:
Butter the bread slices and arrange them in one even layer over the base of your baking dish. Spoon the filling over the bread - flatten it evenly over the bread. Top this with another layer of buttered bread.

Give the custard another quick whisk (the honey tends to sink to the bottom) and then carefully pour this over the bread, pausing to let it soak in. Finish off with a sprinkling of slivered almonds and extra drizzles of honey.



Bake in a preheated 170°C oven until golden and cooked through - about 45 to 60 minutes.



This is best served warm, perhaps with a little extra cream on the side.