La Miascia
Photography by Aaron McLean.
This delectable pudding is loosely based on a recipe from a wonderful book called Cooking for Italian Grandmothers. Designed to use up stale bread and hailing from the Lombardy region, I’ve deviated from the original text and added a few of my own ingredients that I’m sure the grandmothers would approve of.
Serves: 8–10
INGREDIENTS
300 grams of 2 day old sourdough bread (weight after crusts removed)
1 cup milk
½ cup cream
2 tablespoons butter
¼ cup caster sugar
4 apples, peeled and diced into 2 cm pieces
2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary
½ cup raisins
3 eggs
3 tablespoons plain flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
To finish
1 cup small seedless red grapes
few tiny sprigs rosemary
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons demerara or raw sugar
24 cm loose based cake tin
METHOD
Grease a 24 cm loose based cake tin and line the base and sides with non-stick foil or baking paper.
Preheat the oven to 170˚C.
Rip the bread into walnut sized pieces and place in a large bowl with the milk and cream. Turn to coat in the liquid and leave for 30 minutes, turning occasionally to ensure all the bread is well soaked.
Heat the butter in a large sauté pan then add the sugar, apples, rosemary and the raisins.Cook over a high heat for 5 minutes until the apples have softened a little and the juices are reduced and syrupy, stirring often. Cool for 15 minutes.
Whisk the eggs, flour, cinnamon, salt and vanilla extract together in a large bowl. Scrape in the apple mixture with all the pan juices then add the bread with any liquid. Gently fold everything together, trying not to mash the bread too much.
Tip into the cake tin then dot over the grapes and the rosemary sprigs. Drizzle with the butter and sprinkle over the sugar. Push any raisins down into the pudding to prevent them from burning.
Bake for 1 hour, turning the tin for even browning and loosely covering the top with foil after 40 minutes if it’s browning too much. Cool for at least 20 minutes then remove the sides of the tin and slide the cake off the base onto a serving plate. Serve warm or at room temperature with softly whipped cream or mascarpone.
Cook’s tip: You will need a large sourdough loaf as approximately half the weight will be lost when the crust has been removed.
Menu: Serve this with Fresh Fig, Mozzarella and Bean Salad with Basil Dressing to start, followed by Lamb Braised with Potatoes, Tomatoes and Feta.
latest issue:
Issue #122
Our latest of dish is an absolute bumper issue, packed with over 70 recipes! We start by chatting with the MasterChef Australia judges and Kiwi contestant Ben Mcdonald before cooking up the very best of what’s in season. Then we make freezer meals easy and delicious with double-batch cooking. Next up we share some of our faves including Pretzel-crumbed Chicken Schnitty and French Onion Soup Mac and Cheese. Then we whip up warming curries, tempting dinners for two, epic sides like our Parmesan-crusted Roasted Potatoes, and crowd pleasers like our cover-star Miso French Onion Chicken. We finish up with irresistible sweet treats and a run-down of top Aussie shiraz!