Ever have the craving for a quick dessert after a mid week meal? A portion for two or maybe one. A dessert devourable as soon as its out of the oven; one that is whole by itself, undemanding of fancy decorations, a glaze or anything else?
This is the recipe you need.
This recipe hails from the kitchen of that goddess, Nigella. Her book Nigella Express is filled with simple, quick and easy ideas. This one is no exception. A simple, no fuss recipe: putting this together takes about 10 minutes, something you can do while you grill your fish, 20 minutes to bake which happens while you eat and sooner than you know, get that pot of coffee ready, fetch a spoon and get ready to swoon.
If you like and want to make a vegetarian version, skip the egg. I forgot to add it once and honestly it tastes perfectly without it too. Keep an eye on the caramel when it’s cooking. In case you have a big knot of caramel after you put in the cream, just put it back onto the gas and it should melt in no time.I made one very small change to the recipe: added whiskey instead of bourbon and it paired equally well with the caramel sauce. Next I dusted it with sugar once it was done baking and served with a scoop of ice cream. I believe caramelized peaches or mangoes would pair perfectly, but I’ll save that for the next time.
Over to the recipe: Luscious caramel, buttery croissants and a hint of whiskey, makes this the ultimate mid-week treat.
- 2 stale croissants
- ¼ cup caster sugar
- 1 tablespoon water
- ¼ cup double cream
- ¼ cup full fat milk
- 1 tablespoon bourbon or whiskey or rum
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- Preheat the oven to 180C or 350F
- Tear the croissants into pieces and put in a small gratin dish or a ramekin which has the capacity for 250 ml liquid. Put the sugar and water into a saucepan, and swirl around to help dissolve the sugar before putting the saucepan on a hob from medium to high heat. Caramalize the sugar and water by letting it bubble away, without stirring, until it all turns a deep amber color; this will take 3 to 5 minutes.
- Turn down the heat to low and add the cream – ignoring all the spluttering – and whisking away, the milk and bourbon. Any solid toffee that forms will dissolve easily if you keep whisking over low heat. Take off the heat, still whisking, add the egg. Pour the caramel custard over the croissant and leave to steep for 10 minutes if the croissant is very stale. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, let it cool for 5 minutes and enjoy.
Happy Baking!
A QUICK DESSERT?? OMG…. Love this! Printed! Bookmarked! Must have some!
Oh my!This looks divine Anu!Have to try this one for sure, who doesn’t want a quick and easy dessert and that too with a hint of whisky!!You just sold this to me, my friend :)
OMG I am totally speachless, this dessert is amazing, I love croissants, they are so buttery and good, pairing them with caramel and in form of a pudding is the best idea ever!!! EVER!
you are my favorite right now. I love bread pudding, and have always wanted to make some with croissants. Guess I better get on this… ;)
I love Nigella! How absolutely decadent for a post-lunch treat. Caramel, croissants, whiskey? Perfection! :)
MMmmmm this looks so tasty and comforting!
OMG. This looks amazing. And it uses croissants? AND it’s ready quickly?
I’m in!!!
I think I died and went to heaven. But, this looks incredibly wicked!
There’s a video of Nigella making this bread pudding on YouTube and it’s one of my favorites! It’s just so relaxing to watch and makes me want to try this so badly. Yours looks just wonderful!
this looks AMAZING! It’s so funny cuz I just went to this Asian place in NYC and had Amaretto Bread Pudding, very similar… with whiskey ice-cream and caramel sauce.. it was to die for. Your version looks sinfully delicious… yum!!!!!!!!!!
I’m with Liren…heavenly!!!!
oh my goodness, this sounds absolutely divine! all the Nigella recipes i’ve tried have been a huge success, so i’m not surprised that this one is, too. looks just lovely!
Oh goodness, this sounds absolutely heavenly! I am a huge fan of all things caramel…and croissant.. incidently, so I’m definitely in. I’d love it!
Oh wow this is exactly what I need after a long day of work.
I LOVE bread pudding and croissants make it even better. This looks amazing!!
this looks soooooooo yummy! totally love it, i need to make this!
Oh yeah .. i remember seeing this recipe in her show .. or was it something similar but with chocolate! Whatever the same is .. it has croissant .. something I can eat every day :)
I could just float on a cloud, looking at this pic – oh wow…
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I had never had bread pudding until about 2 years ago, I really didn’t get it. NOW, I can’t get enough. Especially since I am in love with fresh baked bread that loses it’s luster after about 12 hours and I can not bring myself to throw it out. Enter the brilliance of bread pudding. I love this recipe!
I know but bread pudding never lasts for more than a couple of hours in my house. :)
I can already taste the buttery goodness. Yum!
What a gorgeous pudding. When you look up baking in the dictionary your photo should come up. :)
Oh Maureen! That’s the best compliment ever! :)
This is beyond gorgeous!!!! I love bread pudding, I love croissants, and I love this dessert:-) Beautiful, Hugs, Terra
Buttery croissants, rich caramel….what a decadent and delicious treat!
What a luscious dessert! The combination of buttery croissants and whiskey sounds so good!
This is one of my favourite puddings ever! What’s not to love with caramel and croissant! :D
Yum! I’m always craving a delicious dessert during the week. I love that this is quick. It looks quite satisfying. I love Nigella- what’s not to love about a woman that gets up in the middle of the night to eat.
What a heavenly dessert. Although I don’t think I’ve ever had croissants around long enough to get stale ;)
Wow – I’m not much of a baker person, but I think I could handle this. Delish!
I have the book.. have seen the recipe.. have wanted to make it also.. now that you’ve done all the hard work and tested it.. you know who’ll be making it soon!! :)
Oh my gosh! What a great recipe and wonderful use of stale croissants! Love it!!
This looks great! I’ve never been a huge bread pudding fan, but I think this might change my mind. Yumm!
Good lord. And the idea of having it with mango? That’s so hot!
I couldn’t agree more with you on adding some booze to the bread pudding. I did one over Thanksgiving with bourbon and it made the flavor 100x better. :)
I love this kind of recipes, so fast to make. And not just because you want something sweet, maybe you have some guests at home and want to share something with them, something fast to make. Just perfect.
Perfect try for me because I like the quick fix dessert and of course when I saw alcohol as one of the ingredients, how can I resist. Thinking whether red wine can replace the bourbon or whiskey. I should try out with red wine and let you know the outcome, something different for a change.
I would love to know how it turned out with red wine. :)
Delightfully Wicked!
I always crave for quick desserts. I do have bourbon in my fridge but I am wondering what should I use in place of croissants. It looks simply amazing.
I did send you an email earlier. You could easily replace the croissants with stale bread or baguette.
Happy Baking!
A
Yummy pudding An. I can’t wait to buy croissants and see them go stale to make this. It looks de-li-ci-io-us
What a great recipe for leftover croissants! Looks absolutely heavenly.
This recipe looks amazing but I’m not sure what caster sugar is. Can you enlighten me? Happy holiday weekend!
Thanks CJ! Caster sugar is basically very fine sugar usually used for baking. Also known as superfine sugar. In case, you can’t find it just use powdered sugar.
looks yummy :)
I featured you on YG today <3
Thanks Heidi! :)
Wow that looks phenomenal!
Oh wow, bread pudding is tasty enough…but caramel croissant pudding…heaven! :-)
Caramel and whiskey go together nicely. I’m in, great recipe.
I had never been a big fan of bread pudding and then I made one using croissants over the holidays. Oh. MY. Such a huge difference. This looks fantastic. You had me at caramel. Croissants are a big bonus!
Mmmmm croissants… well done!! I bet it was fantastic. :) Have a wonderful weekend! ~ Ramona
Oh my word this looks insanely good! :) Gorgeous photos too!
Just fantastic!
I have that cookbook and stare at this recipe everytime I flip through the book! I’ve got to get myself some croissants and let them go stale so I can make this! :)
Well this definitely sounds like heaven. I adore bread pudding and although don’t indulge in it often this is one recipe to save.
I met Nigella when working p/t at Williams Sonoma and she is so pretty and sweet. The men were totally drooling over her. In fact if you go to her FB page it’s almost appalling how they talk to her. Some are quite obscene – its shocking
Thanks for sharing this recipe. Have a great weekend!
A totally decadent dessert that is quick and easy to prepare…heaven.
I have made this exact recipe from Nigella before, and I ADORE it. It’s so good!
This looks like a dessert with a lot of benefits. The first is that it has some fabulous flavor, flaky croissants and cream with a touch of rum-yum! Second, you do not have to slave away in the kitchen to create this. Those factors do make it a winner in my book!
I crave desserts after dinner even more when I know that none are in the house, or easy to make quickly. This changes all that! I love it!
Oh my, this looks gorgeous. I am loving the sound of simple caramel goodness!
Holy goodness. This sounds and looks so soul satisfying!
Now you’re talking my dessert language! Love bread puddings, LOVE caramel! Your picture is definitely making me very, very hungry! Thanks for sharing this!
That’s one real great pudding. Gorgeous pics as well…would surely love to make this.
Holy. Moly. That is the most decadent thing I have seen all week!!
The title of this post alone had me hooked and then the photo…sold! This looks and sounds so delicious and perfect.
Yum! I love the croissant twist to a bread pudding =)
Looks amazing. Great idea to use the stale breads and croissants that almost dry up toward the end of their time!
I adore bread puddings, sweet and savory. I love the combo here…croissants are my favorite for bread pudding and then the caramel and bourbon…I am a definate!
YUM! I’ve been drooling over this recipe for years…and need an excuse to whip up a decadent batch! Truly a winner~
Yum!!!!!!!! I need to dive right into this :)
What a great looking dessert. It’s hard to believe this can be put together in so little time. It certainly is a refreshing and modern approach on the old bread and butter pudding.
Oh my goodness how did I miss this?! This looks incredible and I want one for myself right now! Yum!!