Cheat's Hong Kong French Pudding Bread Recipe (法式布丁麵包)

This cheat's Hong Kong French pudding bread recipe recreates the once-viral bakery favourite with shop-bought buns and a silky homemade custard filling.

Also known as Hong Kong French pudding buns, French pudding bread is part egg tart, part French toast. It's essentially a crusty, baguette-like (hence the 'French') bread roll filled with custard, and it was pretty viral in Hong Kong about five years ago.

It's usually made with homemade rolls, but I found a way to cheat and use bake-at-home, part-baked rolls I bought from the store. Soft rolls won't work – they absorb the custard way too fast and end up leaking. But the thick crust of a freshly-baked roll is enough to keep most of the custard in.

The result? A crunchy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside treat with a creamy custard core.

You can also watch me make this on my YouTube channel, Tashcakes:

Ready? Let's go.

(Makes six rolls with leftover custard filling.)

Ingredients:

6 bake-at-home mini rolls
240ml milk
100ml double cream
2 eggs
50g caster sugar
2 tsp cornflour
Pinch of salt
A few drops of vanilla extract

Method:

1. Bake the rolls according to the packet's instructions and let them cool down on a wire rack.

2. Slice off the tops of the rolls and scoop a little of the bread out to create bread bowls, making sure you don't dig a hole right through to the bottom.

3. Use the back of a spoon to press the inside of the hole down a little to compact the bread, so not too much custard gets absorbed before it has the chance to cook and set.

4. Preheat the oven to 160°C and line a baking tray with nonstick baking paper.

5. Heat the milk and double cream in a small pan over a medium heat until just about simmering.

6. While you're heating the cream, whisk the egg, sugar, cornflour, salt and vanilla together in a heatproof bowl. Once it just about comes to a simmer, pour the milk into the egg mixture, stirring vigorously.

7. Pour into your 'bread bowls', topping up as you go if the bread absorbs some of the mixture at first. Cover your leftover custard and pop in the fridge – it'll keep for a couple of days and you can use it for future rolls, or use it to fill tart shells and bake for quick egg tarts.

8. Cover the tops with a little kitchen foil and bake for 20–30 minutes, until the custard begins to look puffy. Then remove from the oven, let them cool to room temperature, and eat.

Enjoy, and have fun.