🥖🍌🍫 Galician Bandullo is a traditional zero-waste dessert similar to bread pudding, with a long culinary history in Galicia, especially in areas such as the O Morrazo peninsula and Caldas de Reis. It was originally created as a way to use up stale bread and other leftover ingredients commonly found in the home kitchen.
Although it may resemble a classic bread pudding today, Bandullo has deep cultural roots. In Galician, “bandullo” means belly or stomach, and its name comes from the oldest version of the recipe, which was traditionally cooked inside the pig’s stomach and filled with festive leftovers such as raisins, pine nuts and Christmas ingredients. Today, the dessert is prepared in conventional baking tins and cooked either in the oven or using a bain-marie method.
The recipe is traditionally made with day-old bread, milk, eggs and sugar. In this Grandma Sita version, we preserve its original essence while giving it a modern touch with seasonal fruit and chocolate. The result is a delicious and sustainable Galician zero-waste dessert that transforms stale bread and ripe fruit into a rich, comforting bake, keeping homemade cooking and Galicia’s culinary heritage alive.
🎥 Recipe available on our YouTube channel 👀🔗https://lnkd.in/eai6qcrV
- INGREDIENTS
🍞 Base:
250 g stale bread
5 free-range eggs
125 g sugar
40 g de melted butter or margarine
1 small glass of sweet wine (Port or Muscatel)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
🥛 Aromatic infusion:
500 ml milk or almond drink
1 cinnamon stick
Peel of 1 orange
🍎 Fruit & finishing:
2 red plums
1 ripe banana
1 apple
50 g dark chocolate or leftover chocolate (Easter eggs, Halloween or Christmas chocolate)
🍰 To serve:
Icing sugar
Homemade compote or jam
A scoop of ice cream
- METHOD
1. Infuse the milk:
Heat the milk with the cinnamon stick and orange peel until it starts to boil. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for a few minutes.
2. Soak the bread:
Pour the strained hot milk over the bread and leave it to absorb the liquid well.
3. Prepare the mixture:
Beat the eggs and add the crumbled bread, sugar, butter and sweet wine. Mix until you obtain a smooth and even batter.
4. Add the fruit:
Add the chopped fruit and stir gently to combine.
5. Bake:
Pour the mixture into a greased baking tin, add the chopped chocolate and bake at 180°C for 45–50 minutes.
6. Leave to rest:
Allow to cool slightly before serving. This helps the texture to firm up and the flavours to develop.
7. Serve:
Turn out of the tin, dust with icing sugar and serve each portion with a scoop of ice cream. It can be enjoyed warm or cold, and is often even better the next day.
🧓🏻💚 Grandma Sita’s Tips
• Day-old stale bread works best — the perfect base for a rich and moist zero-waste Bandullo.
• You can add spices such as cinnamon, cumin, vanilla or citrus peel to enhance its traditional aroma.
• Storage: keep it in the fridge for several days or freeze it in portions to enjoy later.
🌱 Why Bandullo is the Perfect Zero-Waste Dessert
Bandullo is a wonderful example of traditional Galician zero-waste cooking, originally created to make use of stale bread and ripe fruit from the family kitchen. In Grandma Sita’s philosophy, it keeps seasonal, homemade and sustainable cooking alive, proving that simple ingredients can become desserts full of flavour and memory.
• Uses up stale bread: helping to reduce everyday food waste.
• Zero-waste cooking: perfect for ripe fruit and leftover pantry ingredients.
• Modern twist: easily adaptable to a more conscious and sustainable kitchen.
📗A Brief History of Bandullo
Bandullo is a traditional Galician dessert with centuries of history, especially rooted in areas such as O Morrazo (Rías Baixas) and other rural parts of Galicia. Its name comes from the Galician word “bandullo”, meaning belly or stomach, referring to its earliest origins, when similar preparations were cooked inside the pig’s stomach after the annual slaughter.
Over time, the recipe evolved into homemade baked versions prepared in conventional tins. Traditionally, Bandullo is made with day-old bread, milk, eggs and sugar, and is often prepared during celebrations such as Entroido (Galician Carnival), Christmas and the traditional pig slaughter season in Galicia.
➡️ Want to create sustainable content that connects and makes a real impact?
At Grandma Sita, we ideas into stories, recipes, and purpose-driven campaigns designed to educate, inspire, and drive change. Discover our service 👉🔗content creation