So Ireland has officially descended into lunacy. It’s the end of August and today the rain was constant, the clouds ever present and quite a considerable freshness in the air. Despite the overwhelming greyness I quite liked the day. I had my hat and untie-able trench coat on, as well as two woolly underlayers, so I could enjoy my wander up to town. Now, I know it’s cruel, and if I had an out of house purpose I’m sure I would feel differently, but I also enjoy watching peoples faces in this kind of weather. Everyone seems so cross at it and so determined to beat it by walking fast.

Anyway, I was kindly asked by a friend to bake a cake for her children’s naming party last weekend. Whenever I am asked to do such things I have a wee tendency to get a little carried away. I bought over 40 eggs, forgetting I already had about 9 and I have enough ribbon to camouflage our car. Alas, the ribbon shall remain largely useless till Ch*£?!$as but I thought I could put the eggs to use.

So I got to thinking.

A recipe that is egg heavy.

A staple in my cupboard is Nutella. I have it in my porridge every morning.

I always seem to have amaretti hanging about too.

The weather is telling me I need more calories to make it through the winter.

Wait for it…

Nutella and amaretto bread and butter pudding. Sweet lord, I have found my reason for being on the earth. To bring this dessert to the world. I popped out to my local shop to buy a loaf when further inspiration struck. Brioche? Why yes. Yes indeed.

Let there be Nutella and Amaretto Brioche pudding. Gasp.

This is wonderfully easy to make too. I made it up in 10mins and it took 25mins in the oven. I can find no redeeming health benefit to this number but I believe happy people live longer. So enjoy another few months on me.

Let us begin.

Actually, one last thing. The recipe yields a fierce amount of custard. You could quite happily get away with half the quantity if you were lacking in eggs/ not an utter glutton.

Oven temperature 180 Celsius

Cream                       350ml

Full milk                   300ml

Vanilla extract         2 teaspoons

Eggs                           2

Egg yolks                  4

Caster sugar             100g

Butter for greasing

Approximately 5 mini brioche rolls – about 8cm long

Nutella                      enough for spreading on your rolls and 1 tablespoon extra

Amaretto liqueur    1 tablespoon

Amaretti biscuits     4

Preheat your oven and choose a nice, little ovenproof dish. Mine was purple as if the day wasn’t going well enough already.

To the custard. Put the cream, milk and vanilla into a pot and bring it gently to the boil.

In a biggish mixing bowl crack in the eggs and egg yolks. Save your egg whites and make meringues later. Add in the sugar and whisk to combine. No need to go nuts, just enough whisking till it’s smooth.

Place the ovenproof dish on a baking tray and grease the ovenproof dish with butter.

Now sort out the brioche. As I mentioned, I used mini brioche rolls. If you can’t find these you could use croissants or a nice soft white bread. Slice them in half and spread a fairly generous amount of Nutella onto each cut side. Arrange the spreaded pieces artfully in the dish.

When all the brioche is Nutella-ed and in place, drizzle over the tablespoon of Amaretto.

Your creamy deliciousness should now be boiling. I should say. keep an eye on it as your doing the other bits and pieces. Dairy things have a fierce habit of boiling over. Remove the pot from the heat.

Get your whisk ready and beat the sugary egg mix briskly as you slowly pour in the hot cream. Keep going for another few seconds after it’s all added just to be sure. Spoon in a generous tablespoon of Nutella and whisk to combine. Sigh. It’s all just so delicious.

Now, carefully pour the liquid, Nutella happiness over the brioche. My rolls were surprisingly buoyant. So once you’ve poured in the liquid, squish them down for a few seconds.

Crush over a few amaertti biscuits but these are not essential. Place the ovenproof dish of perfection into the oven and bake for 25 to 3omins.

I reckon it’s better eaten warm rather than burn the mouth off you hot and you should probably have some icecream with it too. I am aware it looks remarkably savoury, sausage casserole-esque but if you could smell how delicious my kitchen smells you wouldn’t care about such superficialities. Now enjoy.