favourite bread and butter pudding

5 thin slices white bread
75g butter
100g sultanas
3 eggs
220ml milk
220ml cream
50g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
25g icing sugar
50g apricot jam
Split the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds. Butter the bread and remove the crusts. Place one layer of bread on the base of the tray and cover with a layer of sultanas. Place the rest of the bread on top of the sultanas.
Bring the cream, milk, sugar and vanilla seeds to the boil in a pan and place the eggs in a bowl and whisk the hot liquid into them. Pour the egg mixture over the bread and place the dish in a bain-marie (or a roasting dish half full of water) and put in a moderate oven for about half an hour until cooked.
Dust with icing sugar and glaze until golden. Spread thickly with apricot jam.
Serve with clotted cream and a compôte of dried apricots.

CHOCOLATE VARIATION:

as above, plus
100g grated chocolate muscovado, not caster
1 level tsp mixed spice
50g cocoa powder
For a change, try the spicy chocolate version:
The method is almost identical, but replace 50g of the sultanas with 100g of grated dark chocolate on the bottom layer of bread. Use dark muscovado sugar instead of white caster sugar; and add the mixed spice and cocoa powder in with the cream, milk, sugar and vanilla when you make the custard
(see photo inset).
Serve with whipped cream and Armagnac prunes