Two recipes from croissant queen Kate Reid's new Lune cookbook

Never let a good croissant go to waste with Lune founder Kate Reid's recipes for croissant "bread and butter" pudding and croissant croutons, both from her new cookbook Lune: Croissants All Day, All Night.

Croissant "bread and butter" pudding

Bread and butter pudding doesn't have a very glamorous ring to it, but let me tell you, this pudding punches well above its weight. So much so that it was promoted to a Lune Lab dessert back in 2018.

As per the requirements for a Lune Lab dish, we didn't just serve up a scoop of pudding. We took a set slice of croissant pudding, fried it in beurre noisette, then coated it in vanilla sugar. It was served alongside house-made cultured cream and a blackberry compote.

Here I have given you the recipe for croissant "bread and butter" pudding (which is incredibly delicious as it is – serve to dinner guests with a scoop of best-quality vanilla ice-cream and you'll have them licking their plates clean). There are also a few variations, should you feel so inclined to try a little flavour twist to the base recipe.

INGREDIENTS

• 6 day-old croissants
• 4 eggs
• 250g milk
• 250g thickened cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 30g caster sugar

METHOD

1. Grease a loaf tin and line with baking paper.
2. Tear the croissants roughly and arrange the pieces in the loaf tin.
3. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, milk, cream, vanilla extract and sugar in a bowl to combine. Pour the egg mixture over the croissants and let stand for at least 1 hour, allowing the croissants to soak up the liquid.
4. Preheat your oven to 160C fan-forced (180C conventional). Bake the pudding in the oven for 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the pudding comes out clean.
5. Leave to cool completely before turning out of the tin.
6. Cut into thick slices and serve in a puddle of runny cream.

Three variations

1. Instead of tearing the croissants into rough chunks, cut the croissants into slices and spread with hazelnut spread before arranging in the loaf tin. Proceed as per the recipe above.
2. For a Sicilian twist, as you are arranging the croissant pieces in the loaf tin, randomly distribute some ricotta and chopped dark chocolate among the croissant pieces. Add the grated zest of one orange to the egg mixture. Proceed as per the recipe above.
3. Warm 2 tablespoons of rum gently in a small pan, remove from the heat and add 100g of raisins. Allow to soak for 1 hour. Scatter the rum-soaked raisins among the croissant pieces. Add a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg to the egg mixture.

Serves 10-12

Croissant croutons

Many cuisines, the world over, include dishes featuring some sort of a bread crouton.

Pieces of dried bread, or croutons, are the key ingredient in panzanella, the simple yet perfect Tuscan tomato and bread salad. Caesar salad utilises little crunchy croutons to add textural depth to a creamy, salty dish that masquerades under its healthy "salad" banner (I mean, remove the cos lettuce and you basically have a deconstructed hangover fry-up). Fattoush, originating from Lebanon, uses leftover pita, fried and tossed with in-season chopped vegetables and herbs, often garnished with zingy sumac.

There are but three examples, and we've only considered the category of salads!

The myriad soups that are likewise infinitely improved when garnished with a handful of croutons (I'm looking squarely at you, French onion) make this use of leftover croissants one of the easiest yet most powerful kitchen weapons you can possess.

INGREDIENTS

• day-old croissants
• olive oil, for drizzling
• sea salt flakes
• ground black pepper

1. METHOD
2. Allow leftover croissants to rest for at least one night to become stale and dry out.
3. The following day, preheat your oven to 155C fan-forced (175C conventional). Cut each croissant into four or five large slices, then cut or tear the slices into rough pieces, approximately 2.5cm.
4. Lay the pieces out on a baking tray in a single layer, being careful not to overcrowd the tray. Drizzle the croissant pieces with olive oil, then season generously with sea salt flakes and pepper.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes, tossing the croutons on the tray every 5 minutes, until they are crisp and reach a deep golden colour all over.
6. Allow to cool to room temperature before adding to your salad or soup of choice.

This is an edited extract from Lune: Croissants All Day, All Night by Kate Reid, photography by Pete Dillon. Hardie Grant Books, RRP $55.