Ingredients
8 slices of slightly stale brioche, thickly sliced and then cut into triangles
400ml whole milk
vanilla pod, halved
zest of ½ lemon
1/2 cup lemon verbena leaves
3 eggs
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 punnet of strawberries, hulled and halved
200ml double cream
1 tbsp demerara sugar
pinch of cinnamon
Directions
Easy, pretty and absolutely delicious...just when you thought this pud couldn’t get any better - it can be prepared hours in advance and just popped in the oven 45 minutes before you’d like it ready. Nice!
Put the milk into a small pan with the vanilla pod. Bring to a simmer, then turn off the heat, add the lemon zest and verbena and allow to cool. Meanwhile, arrange the brioche slices in a baking dish in overlapping rows and scatter with the strawberries. Beat the eggs and sugar together until well combined, remove the vanilla from the milk and discard. Beat this into the egg mixture with the cream. Pour over the brioche slices, pushing down so every last one is covered with the custard.
Preheat the oven to 180C and let the pudding sit and soak for 30 minutes or more (it can sit in the fridge for a few hours even at this point with no problems at all). Scatter the top with the sugar and sprinkle with the cinnamon. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden then allow to stand for 15 minutes before serving with cream or ice cream.
