Bread and Butter Pudding

I was always wildly impressed with my mother’s ability to make something out of nothing at all (all while listening to some Air Supply).

She would tell nostalgic/horrific stories of having no money for food and making cake out of leftover breadcrumbs and guavas from the tree outside our back door.

Fortunately for me, they remained tales from harder times gone by.

When my mommy was in the kitchen, I saw her turn cupboard staples into culinary superstars.

My favourite was Bread and Butter Pudding. I’d marvel at how she’d turn an ordinary school lunch into a delectable dessert. Fascinating. For a little kid, it really is the stuff heroes are made of.

Now it’s a recipe I’ll never need to write down, only pass down.

Bread and Butter Pudding

Serves 4

10 slices of white bread, crusts cut off
Real butter
Apricot jam
500ml full cream milk
3 large eggs
5-10ml vanilla extract
10-15 little chocolates

Preheat the oven to 160ºC.

Grease a medium-sized casserole dish.

Butter the bread and be very liberal with the apricot jam. Remember, this is the only sugar in the recipe so do feel free to add to taste.

Beat the milk, eggs and vanilla extract together. Feel free to substitute some of the milk with cream for a richer version.

Place the buttered bread in the dish, sprinkle the chocolates between the slices and pour over the egg mixture. Let it soak in for a few minutes before putting the dish in the oven for an hour.

Let it cool and set for 10 minutes before serving. I prefer my B&B Pudding with Ideal milk but custard or ice-cream work just as well.

Advertisement

Chocolate Pear Pudding

Rich, gooey goodness paired with soft, sweet freshness… sounds heavenly, huh?

Chocolate Pear Pudding

Peas and carrots ain’t got nothing on chocolate and pears. They just go together.

A while back I received a copy of Willie Harcourt-Cooze’s recipe book Willie’s Chocolate Factory Cookbook. From cacao with your fried egg to cacao under the skin of your chicken, there’s no way not to enjoy the flavours of cacao and chocolate.

Excuse me for waxing lyrical there for a moment… It’s  the sugar high.

Not one for doing things by the book, I changed up Willie’s recipe for Gooey Chocolate Pudding. Mainly because all I can afford is the 70% stuff instead of his brand of cacao (available at R100 per 100g from Woolies).

How about some canned pears? Yep. What’s this – a leftover lime? In goes the zest.

Willie’s Goey Chocolate Pudding with Sam’s amendments

(3 large ramekins of pudding)

100g Lindt 70% Excellence (or 90g of Willie’s cacao)
100g unsalted butter
87.5g castor sugar
3 eggs
1ts vanilla extract
1 tin canned pears, halved
zest of 1 lime

Chocolate and Pears like... honey and bears?

I know a recipe for 3 servings is odd but this is just one of  those puddings.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius with the fan. Grease or spray your pudding ramekins.
Melt the cacao or chocolate with the butter and 30g of castor sugar in a heatproof bowl set on top of a pot of simmering water.

Beat eggs, remaining sugar and vanilla together lightly. Until pale yellow.

Fold cacao mixture gently into egg mixture.

Place 1 canned pear half in bottom of each ramekin.

Divide the mixture between the ramekins.

Now, here’s the thing. The original recipe is for 6-8 pudding ramekins. Due to not having said amount of ramekins, we had to go with three. They were quite large. So while the recipe states bake for 12-15 minutes, I found it to only be ready in 20-25 minutes.
The trick is to wait for the tops to rise and crack, then you’ll know. That’s really the better indicator than a stupid kitchen timer shaped like egg.

Once done, serve with a dollop of creme fraiche and a sprinkling of lime zest.

Willie’s Chocolate Factory Cookbook (Hodder & Stoughton)

Malva Pudding

Mmm… Malva Pudding.

Drenched in sunshine...

It’s a miserable Easter Sunday here in Cape Town, but then again the weather’s perfect for spending with family. Miss you today, Mom.

To cheer me up, I drenched up old food photos and found this fantastic pic of Malva Pudding I baked on a beautifully sunny day.

I am not by a long shot a pro when it comes to this South African classic, so I turned to a pro for some help.

The November 2009 edition of Taste Magazine featured recipes from Shaun Schoeman, the exec chef at Fyndraai, the gorgeous restaurant at Solms-Delta wine estate. (Aside note: you must try the Springbok shank.)

His Malva pud looked amazing so I thought hey, this could make me look good.

My final product didn’t look anything like the picture, but it tasted real good so we won’t split hairs.

Fyndraai‘s Malva Pudding
Serves 4 to 6
220g castor sugar
140g white flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 free-range egg
1 cup of milk
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tbs melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Sauce:
110g castor sugar
1 cup full-cream milk
2 tbs butter

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius. Sift all dry ingredients together. Whisk together the egg and milk, then add vinegar and melted butter. Add dry ingredients to egg mixture and whisk until smooth. Mix in the vanilla extract. then pour the mixture into a lightly greased tray and bake for 25 mins. Pierce the surface of the warm pudding with a fork. Pour the sauce over it and serve.

Sauce: Mix all ingredients in a saucepan over a low heat until butter is melted.

My result was so saucy I didn’t bother with ice-cream or Ideal milk, just a bit of lemon zest.