I HESITATE to use the word ‘'stale’', it’s an insult to me.

I think of stale bread more as ‘mature and loaded with potential’ - that is good bread of course and not mass-produced, cotton-woolly plastic wrapped bread. Good bread rarely disappoints.

If you have good bread and a touch of creativity you're only a hop, a skip and a jump away from making bread and butter pudding.

This is a forgotten wartime Yorkshire popular classic recipe, and not forgetting the school dinner jokes, being on the menu every week - poor dinner ladies!

Bread pudding was a way of using up leftover, odds and ends of stale breads, and turning them into sought-after comforting sweet puddings. You will be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't like bread pudding.

Sadly by the start of the 1990s this humble pudding had become all but extinct. Today's shopping habits tempted us into buying the special offers – but did they save us a bob or two, or create more waste for the bin?

When you fuse the characteristics, endless versatility and frugal adaptability together, bread pudding truly is the ultimate comfort dessert for you!

I can also guarantee you will have all the ingredients to make it right now in your store cupboards.

The recipe is very versatile, so be adventurous with the breads and fillings - my preferences being butter croissants or a luscious brioche loaf, homemade of course!

If your chosen bread is still fresh, don't fret, you can still use it. However, for maximum absorption powers bread a few days old will always work best.

Cream can be partly or completely replace the milk and often jam or marmalade is heated and spread across the top of the pudding to add some extra fruity flavour.

My theory on any recipe is always to better it, and chocolate in this case lifts and glams up the humble bread and butter pudding to the next level making it come alive, especially this time of year when we often give in to our weaknesses putting the diets on hold.

The smell of baking chocolate is always heavenly.

We don't have enough indulgence in our lives, and there's no such thing as too much chocolate, especially in my household where chocolate bread and butter pudding is always a winner.

But if you do want to take it down a notch or two, then feel free to omit the chocolate for butter - which will be sacrilege!

Baker Mike's Sinful Tips

* Chocolate or blueberry muffins are divine and offer a great alternative to breads

* Allow the bread to soak up and adsorbed the custard for 20 minutes before baking

* Hot cross buns make amazing alternatives to bread

* Don't be tempted to leave the salt out of the recipe, it helps make the chocolate sweeter

* Traditional bread recipes call for a handful of sultanas and a good sprinkle of cinnamon

* Toss in a handful of chocolate chips if you prefer buttered croissants