Ipswich puds

Finding out about Ipswich ahead of a visit to the town, I found a recipe for Ipswich pudding on the web. I couldn't resist trying it out. It's rather like Bakewell Tart without the pastry case or the jam. I've altered it a little, and made small tarts rather than one large pudding.

Ingredients
milk
slice bread
butter
brown sugar
ground almonds
2 eggs
vanilla essence (optional)
sliced almonds and a bit more butter (optional)

Equipment

bowls
saucepan
spoon
tart tin

oven:
time in oven: 30 mins

preparation time:
mixing
melting butter

Cooking process

The slice of bread needs to be made into breadcrumbs. You could use a food mixer, or you can take the crusts off, and tear it into pieces, then soak these in the milk.
You can cream the butter and sugar together, but if the butter is soft enough, you may be able to mix them in directly.
Add the ground almonds, and the vanilla essence if you are using it. Mix everything so far together well.
Separate the eggs, and add the yolks to the mix. and fold them in.
Put dollops of the mix into the tart tin. Don't over-fill as they will rise.
If you are adding sliced almonds on top, melt a little butter in a saucepan, and mix in the almonds, then put a few on top of each pud. The butter is to stop the almonds buring so much.
Put the tin in the oven without a lid. Cook for 30 minutes.

Other ideas

I've used to give more taste, but ordinary white sugar would work as well.
The original recipe talked about almond essence. I've used vanilla essence instead.