What better way to get baking when it’s all cold and rainy outside? I wanted a piece of puddina for so long so I decided why not bake one on a rainy Sunday? ? Puddina is a traditional Maltese sweet bake made of day old bread. Since it was all cold I just ran to the next store available to get what I need to start my puddina mission, this meant that I didn’t have a lot of choices but it worked out pretty well.
Here is a step-by-step ‘guide’ as to how to make the famous puddina which is fairly quick and easy.
The ingredients:-
- A loaf of bread ? (typically this would be a day old Maltese bread but any bread would work)
- 2 eggs? (beaten)
- 6 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- Milk ? (enough to soak the bread in step 3)
- Nuts ? (walnuts, cashews, almonds – whatever you like really!)
- Raisins (I made a ‘special small one’ without raisins as Jannik doesn’t like them)
- Chocolate chunks ? (I had a whole dark chocolate one and put pieces of it)
Step 1:
Cut the bread into small chunks so it would be easier to handle (drain and mash into ‘one’ thing).
Step 2:
Cover the bread with milk and leave for 20 minutes, you can use water instead of milk but milk gives it a smoother feel and taste.
Step 3:
Drain the bread thoroughly and mash the bread so that the pieces become one as shown in the picture below.
Step 4:
Mix in all the ingredients and stir well – make sure that all the bread turns brown with the cocoa powder. You may want to pour in some whiskey, sherry or brandy too (I left ours alcohol-free).
Step 5:
Grease a dish – be generous as to avoid it sticking to the pan (same old usual baking heck)
Step 6:
Pour the mixture in the dish. You may want to decorate the top with nuts or with glace cherries (I left the cherries out – as they are a no no for me!)
Step 7:
Bake for 30-45 minutes on 200 degrees. You want to treat it as a cake, in the sense that when you poke it with a skewer it should be clean as to know that it is done.
Step 8:
Cut a huge slice of puddina, pour yourself a cup of tea/coffee ☕ & ENJOY ?
