Ultimate toad in the hole
An indulgent favourite comes bursting to life in this luxurious recipe - everyone loves a good toad in the hole
Butter a deep 2-litre baking dish. Dollop in half the jam and spread over the base of the dish. Trim the crusts and rounded top from the loaf so that you are left with a rectangular block of bread. Cut into 4 thick slices of bread. Whizz the crusts and left over bread into crumbs and freeze for later.
Spread the butter over one side of each slice of bread. Flip the slices over and spread the un-buttered sides with remaining jam. Roll up the slices from the short sides, jam-side inwards, to make 4 fat Swiss rolls. Halve each so you end up with 8 short, squat Swiss rolls. Squish these snugly into the baking dish, cut-sides up, so you can see 8 jam swirls.
Whisk together the eggs, cream and milk, then sieve into a jug with the sugar and vanilla. Give a good stir, then carefully pour over the bread swirls – you may have to do this in stages, letting the custard soak in bit by bit. Let the dish stand at room temperature for 30 mins so the custard continues to soak in.
Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Scatter some more caster sugar over the pudding, then bake for 1 hr-1 hr 15 mins until the top is golden and the custard is gently set. Cool for 5 mins, then serve.