Sophisticated Tea and Crumpet Bread Pudding

I'm kind of a carb-o'-holic.  Who's with me?  I enjoy my bread in any form, and bread pudding is one of my favorite desserts.  When I had some leftover homemade crumpets, bread pudding immediately came to mind.  I found a recipe on Fisher and Paykel's site for an Earl Grey bread and butter pudding made with croissants.  After gawking over the recipe, I decided to do my own take on their recipe using crumpets and, of course, cupcake liners.  The result was a simple, mildly sweet bread pudding with a distinct tea flavor.  If you are looking for a rich, over-the-top dessert, this isn't it.  It's more sophisticated and proper - just like eating tea and crumpets on fine china.


Tea and Crumpet Bread Pudding Recipe

Yield: 12 bread pudding cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 teaspoons loose Earl Grey tea
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup golden syrup + extra to drizzle on top (you could also use molasses, corn syrup, or honey)
• 3 large eggs
• 12 crumpets
• powdered sugar to sprinkle on top (optional)
• clotted cream to put on top (optional and not shown in photo)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Heat the milk and cream in a small saucepan on medium heat until they just begin to boil.
3. Lower the heat just a little to keep the liquid from boiling, and then add the tea.
4. Let the tea steep in the milk mixture for ten minutes.
5. Remove the milk mixture from the heat and use a sieve to strain out the tea.
6. Whisk the vanilla extract and golden syrup into the hot milk mixture.
7. Whisk the eggs in a medium-sized bowl.
8. Add a little bit of the milk mixture at a time to the eggs, stirring to combine after each addition.
9. Rip the crumpets into small pieces.
10. Dunk crumpet pieces into the milk mixture and then pack the pieces into silicone cupcake liners - one crumpet should fill one liner.
11. Bake for 25 minutes or until the bread pieces no longer appear wet.
12. Serve warm, drizzled with golden syrup, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and optionally topped with clotted cream.