AI-generated image
Pan de Calatrava
Caramel bread pudding
Pan de Calatrava: Murcia's caramel bread pudding, baked slowly in a water bath
Pan de Calatrava is Murcia's thrifty Sunday dessert, a flan thickened with yesterday's bread or leftover sponge and baked over a layer of dark caramel. Murcian grandmothers made it to use up the end of a loaf, and it is still on the menu at family-run restaurants across the region, cut into slices and served cold with the caramel running down. The milk is infused first with lemon peel and cinnamon. Chef's tip: let it chill overnight before turning it out, so it slices cleanly and the caramel turns to syrup.
- Total time
- 80 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 8
Ingredients
For the caramel
- 4 oz sugar
- 3 tbsp water
For the pudding
- 3 ¼ cups whole milk
- 1 strip of lemon peelno white pith
- 7 oz day-old white bread or plain sponge cakecrusts removed, torn into pieces
- 5 eggs
- 4 ½ oz sugar
Shop this recipe on Amazon
What you'll need
Spices & pantry
Fresh ingredients (3)
Links open Amazon in a new tab. As an Amazon Associate, WhatToEat.Today earns from qualifying purchases.
Method
0/7 doneStep 1: Heat the oven to 325°F (275°F fan) and put the kettle on.
5 minStep 2: Heat the 4 oz sugar and 3 tbsp water in a small pan over a medium heat without stirring, swirling now and then, for 6–8 minutes until it turns a deep amber. Pour at once into a 22 cm loaf or round tin and tilt to coat the bottom. Take care: the caramel is extremely hot.
8 minStep 3: Bring the 3 ¼ cups whole milk, 1 strip of lemon peel and 1 cinnamon stick just to the boil, take off the heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Remove the peel and cinnamon.
12 minStep 4: Pour the milk over the 7 oz day-old white bread or plain sponge cake and leave for 10 minutes until completely soft, then blend or mash until fairly smooth.
10 minStep 6: Set the tin in a roasting tin and pour in boiling water to come halfway up its sides. Bake for 55–60 minutes until the top is golden and a knife pushed into the centre comes out clean, with the middle just wobbling like a flan. A common mistake is a hot oven without the water bath: the pudding boils, fills with holes and turns rubbery.
60 minStep 7: Cool, then chill for at least 4 hours or overnight. Run a knife round the edge, turn out onto a plate with a rim and serve in slices with the caramel.
240 min
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 280 kcal
- Protein
- 9 g
- Carbs
- 45 g
- Fat
- 7 g
- Fibre
- 1 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does pan de Calatrava take?
- About 80 minutes in total: 20 minutes to prepare and 60 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 8 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- Can I make it ahead?
- Yes. It keeps well, so you can cook it earlier in the day or the day before and reheat it.
- What can I use instead of sugar?
- Caster sugar, same amount.
- What can I use instead of whole milk?
- Semi-skimmed milk with 1 tbsp cream per 240ml (1 cup).
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Kartoshka cakeCocoa and cake crumb truffles
Soviet cafés and school canteens sold these knobbly brown 'potatoes' for a few kopecks, and they began as a thrifty way to use up sponge and biscuit trimmings at the bakery. Crumbs are bound with butter and sweetened condensed milk, flavoured with cocoa and vanilla, shaped into little potatoes, rolled in cocoa and finished with two dabs of pale butter cream for the sprouts. They are fudgy and dense like a brownie truffle, need no oven, and children love making them. Traditional bakers added a spoonful of rum, an optional extra for adult batches only; this version is alcohol-free with vanilla. The usual slip is coarse crumbs, which make the potatoes crack, so blitz them as fine as sand. Chef's tip: chill the shaped potatoes for at least 20 minutes so they hold their shape and slice cleanly.
Russian
Undu walaluFried urad dal rings in treacle
Walalu means bangles, and these dark, sticky rings of fried urad dal soaked in kithul treacle are a sweet that Sinhala families bring out for Avurudu and for special almsgivings, often made in large batches by an aunt known for her steady hand. A thick, fluffy paste of ground black gram is piped into loops and fried until crisp, then plunged straight into warm treacle, so the rings stay crunchy on the outside while drinking up the syrup. They taste a little like a darker, smokier jalebi, with a toffee finish from the palm treacle. Watery batter is what ruins them; it spreads into flat blobs, so grind the soaked dal with as little water as possible and beat it until light. This recipe uses no asafoetida, so it is naturally gluten free. Chef's tip: pipe the rings onto small squares of baking paper and lower them into the oil paper and all; the paper peels away in seconds.
Sri Lankan
Baklava
The famous layered pastry: crisp sheets of buttered fillo sandwich a filling of almonds, pistachios and cashews spiced with cinnamon, cardamom and saffron. After baking, the hot baklava is soaked in a syrup of sugar, honey, lemon, rose and cardamom and decorated with almond and pistachio flakes. Cut into 40 diamonds; serve with fresh cream or ice cream.