Gingerbread and butter pudding with pears and rum custard

This pudding is the ultimate in winter comfort food – sweet, soft and fragrant with a creamy, rummy custard.

Recipe/food styling: Bernadette Hogg Photo: Manya Wachsmuth

Serves 6-8

2 tbsp butter, softened 1⁄2 cup prunes, halved 3 tbsp rum 410g tin quartered pears in syrup, drained 400g gingerbread (we used Ernest Adams Jamaican Ginger Loaf), cut into 5mm slices

2 eggs

1⁄2 cup caster sugar

300ml full-cream milk

1⁄2 tsp ground cinnamon

1⁄2tsp ground nutmeg

1⁄2 tsp vanilla extract

Rum custard

300ml full-cream milk 1⁄2 cup caster sugar 4 egg yolks

2 tbsp rum

Grease a 5-cup terrine or loaf pan with some of the butter. Soak the prunes in the rum for at least 10 minutes. Slice each pear quarter lengthways into about 3 pieces.

Butter 1 side of each gingerbread slice.

Drain the prunes and reserve any liquid.

Place a layer of pears in the loaf pan, scatter over some of the prunes and top with a layer of gingerbread, overlapping slightly and butter side down.

Layer over half the remaining pears and prunes, top with another layer of gingerbread then repeat, finishing with gingerbread.

Whisk together the eggs and caster sugar. Heat the milk to almost boiling, then slowly add to the egg mixture, whisking constantly.

Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and reserved rum, whisking to combine.

Pour this mixture carefully over the gingerbread, giving it time to soak in. Stand for 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 180C, and bake the pudding for 35-40 minutes until golden and firm to touch. Serve warm, or at room temperature, with the rum custard.

To make the rum custard, place the milk and half the sugar in a pot and heat until almost boiling.

Whisk the remaining sugar with the egg yolks until well-combined. Pour the hot milk over, whisking continuously.

Return to the pot and stir over low heat until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon (do not let it boil). Remove from the heat and add rum. Serve hot.