Chocolate Easter Bread and Butter Pudding

This has been sat in my drafts for a week and a half and I forgot about it! I could kick myself.

About a month ago I had some left over croissants that could have been used for missiles as opposed to anything edible. I decided to use them for a bread and butter pudding instead of throwing them out, especially good as I needed to use up two eggs before they went off and couldn't be bothered to make a cake.

When we came back from our Easter weekend away, I discovered that we seemed to have a plethora of hot cross buns that were more akin to rock cakes. Is it just me that finds they go stale really quickly? I hate throwing good food out, and so faced with six stale hot cross buns and too much Easter chocolate, I decided to make an Easter bread and butter pudding.

I used the trusty BBC Good Food Guide recipe which the kind @caroljs had pointed out to me and adapted it accordingly.

• butter for greasing
• chocolate spread (I used chocolate Philadelphia)
• 4-6 Hot Cross Buns, sliced into quarters
• 50g/2oz chocolate drops/chunks/bashed-up Easter egg
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 250ml whole milk
• 150ml single cream
• 2 free-range eggs
• 25g granulated sugar
• 3tbsp of chocolate powder

1. Grease a 1 litre/2 pint pie dish with butter.
2. Cut the Hot Cross Buns into quarters. Spread each slice with on one side with chocolate spread.
3. Arrange a layer of buns, buttered-side up, in the bottom of the dish, then add a layer of chocolate broken bits. Sprinkle with a little cinnamon, then repeat the layers of bread and chocolate, sprinkling with cinnamon, until you have used up all of the buns.
4. Gently warm the milk and cream in a pan over a low heat to scalding point, but not boiling and bubbling point. Whisk in the chocolate powder.
5. Crack the eggs into a bowl, add three quarters of the sugar and lightly whisk until pale.
6. Add the warm milk and cream mixture and stir well, then strain the custard into a bowl.
7. Pour the custard over the prepared bread layers and sprinkle with the remaining sugar and leave to stand for 30 minutes.
8. Preheat the oven to 180C/355F/Gas 4.
9. Place the dish into the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the custard has set and the top is golden-brown.
10. Serve warm with a dollop of dairy ice-cream or clotted cream.