Rum and raisin bread and butter pudding

I take comfort in nourishing, delicious, plant-centric foods, with brothy, greens-packed noodle soups, warming bowls of dhal, hearty winter salads and roasted vegetable traybakes on a rotating roster. Taking advantage of blank diary pages after the furious socialising of the festive break to spend weekends battened down at home, feet up with a mug of something hot and a stack of food magazines or cookbooks is a lovely way to relax and get inspired. And a session of batch cooking to fill your freezer will make future you happy, too. I’m all for easing the load at this time of year.

I also want pudding. Proper hot, rib-sticking desserts spooned steaming into warm bowls and topped with lashings of cream or custard. Sweet things that involve cheering doses of sweetness that fill the kitchen with the scent of vanilla or cinnamon or caramelised nuts, kept in the fridge and reheated when I’m feeling the energy ebb away in the afternoon.

One such dessert that always hits the spot, that also has a pleasing resourcefulness and frugality to it befitting of January, is bread and butter pudding. It was a favourite of my late father, who would twitch his shoulders excitedly at the prospect of what he always lovingly abbreviated to “B and BP”. This version involves rum-spiked raisins, warming spice and plenty of citrus zest, is custardy underneath and crisp with caramelised demerara on top, just as it should be."