Aish el Saraya/Lebanese Bread Pudding

Aish el Saraya is an egg less, butter less Lebanese Bread pudding also translated as ‘Bread of the palace” . This originated in Egypt and was made for the royals. This is made with toasted bread soaked in sugar syrup and coated with delicious custard and topped with Pistachios. Its so simple to make and amazingly delicious in taste. You really cannot stop after eating single bite. The first time I tasted this, I found it heavenly and knew that I had to make this again and I am sure you would also echo my sentiment

If using regular bread for this recipe, then it should be hard, not soft as dinner rolls. If you use soft bread, it will become extremely soggy once the syrup and custard is poured on it. You need to use toasted bread/rusk for this dish. Rusks are double baked bread and I have used it for preparing this dish

I have used homemade condensed milk for this recipe and you can click the link below for the recipe, its quite simple to make and ready in jiffy

• Homemade Instant Condensed milk

This is quite different from regular bread pudding and amazingly delightful in taste. This is a definitely must have dish during festive occasion or parties

*If you do not have orange blossoms then you can add little cardamom powder or orange juice instead.This dessert tastes best with the combination of rose water and orange blossoms water

**If you do not have heavy cream then use only the thick part of the regular cream

***Always cook condensed milk over low heat else it will burn

Do watch the video for better clarity in preparation and share your experience once you prepare the dish

Preparation time: 25 mins Cooling time: 7 hours Cooking time: 20 mins Total time: 7 hrs 45 mins

Servings: 7-8

Ingredients

For Sugar Syrup

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tbsp orange blossom water
• 1/2 tbsp rose water

For Custard

• 250 ml milk
• 1/2 tbsp orange blossom water
• 1/2 tbsp rose water
• 130 ml heavy cream
• 2.5 tbsp corn flour
• 15-20 toasted bread/rusk (depending on pan size)
• 150 – 200 ml condensed milk

For Topping

• 1/2 cup-3/4 cup finely chopped pistachio for garnish
• 1 tbsp crushed rose petals – optional

Steps to prepare

Start with sugar syrup preparation

• Add sugar and water in a pan, Mix well
• Once sugar dissolves ,add lemon juice and mix well.
• Boil for 6 minutes, switch off.
• Add in the rose water and orange blossom water and mix well.
• Allow syrup to cool a little.
• Place toasted bread/rusk in a pan adjacent to each other. Place first set of rusk/toast. Pour half of the sugar syrup and allow it to soak for 15 mins, place second set of rusk on top and then pour the remaining syrup.Keep this aside

Now prepare the custard.

• In 100 ml milk, mix corn flour well. Keep it aside
• Add remaining milk to sauce pan
• Add condensed milk, cream, corn slurry to milk. Mix everything well.
• Heat milk over low medium heat and keep stirring until custard starts thickening.
• Once it thickens, switch off.
• Add rose water and orange blossoms to custard and mix well.
• Allow custard to cool lightly.
• Pour warm custard over sugar soaked rusk/bread toast and spread evenly
• Evenly top with pistachios and rose petals on top.
• Refrigerate for 6-7 hours or overnight.
• Slice and serve the delicious Aish el saraya. Refrigerate leftovers if any