Retro-Inspired Puddings For Autumn

Now that the evenings are drawing in and the temperatures are dropping, we all start to feel like indulging in a little comfort food now and again. For main courses, that might be a hearty stew or a slow-cooked joint, but when it comes to sweet treats, nothing beats a good old-fashioned pudding like Mum or Grandma used to make.

With plenty of fruit in season at the moment, autumn is the perfect time to get out that pudding basin, fill a mixing bowl with delicious ingredients and treat the whole family to a fabulous dessert. Read on for some of our own favourite recipe ideas that will fill you with nostalgia as well as sweet and sticky goodness.

Fruit Cobbler Recipe

Our first suggestion today is for a good old fruit cobbler. You can use whatever fruit you have to hand for this recipe, whether that’s plums or blackberries and apples from your own garden or something a little more exotic such as apricots or even bananas. For this recipe, we’ll stick to a traditional plum cobbler...

Ingredients:

1kg ripe plums, stoned and chopped into chunks
250g butter
250g sugar
2tsp cinnamon
1 large egg
120ml milk
1tbsp baking powder
3tbsp demerara sugar

Method:

1. Add the chopped plums to a large pan, along with 120g of cubed butter and 120g of sugar and 1tsp of cinnamon. Heat on a low setting until the butter and sugar have melted and the fruit has turned into a sticky mix. Set aside.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 180° C. Beat the egg and add it to the milk in a jug.

3. In a large mixing bowl, rub the remaining butter and the flour together to form a breadcrumb-like consistency. Add the remaining sugar, along with the cinnamon and the baking powder. Finally, add the milk and egg mixture and work it into a thick mix.

4. Pour the plum mixture into a large ovenproof dish and then add big spoonfuls of the cobbler mix to cover the top of the fruit, leaving small gaps here and there for the plums to ooze through. Sprinkle a little demerara sugar on top of the cobbler mix and then pop it in the oven for around 30-35 minutes, when the cobbler should be just golden. Leave to rest for 5 minutes and then serve with ice cream, custard or pouring cream.

Steamed Treacle Pudding

Nothing conjures up memories of school dinners and scrumptious puddings more than a good old-fashioned steamed pudding and treacle pudding has to be top of the list. Whilst you can cheat and make them in the microwave, we think that they are infinitely better if you make them the traditional way, in a basin covered with greaseproof paper and tin foil and bubbling away in a pan of water for an hour and a half. Here’s our go-to recipe for steamed treacle pudding:

Ingredients:

180g butter
4 tbsp golden syrup
180g caster sugar
3 large eggs
180g self-raising flour
Splash of milk



Method:

1. Lightly grease a pudding basin with butter and then spoon the golden syrup into the bottom.

2. Beat together the butter and sugar with a whisk until it is light and well-combined. Gradually add the beaten eggs and then slowly fold in the flour, ensuring that everything is well combined. Finally, add a splash of milk.

3. Spoon the mixture into a pudding basin. Take a piece of tin foil and fold a pleat in it and then place over the top of the pudding basin. Then do the same with a piece of grease proof paper. Tie them both on with a length of string.

4. Place the pudding basin in a pan of water and simmer for 90 minutes, checking that there is still plenty of water in the pan from time to time. The water should come to half way up the side of the basin.

5. When cooked, turn the pudding out onto a serving dish and add a little more golden syrup if required. Serve with custard or cream.

Of course, there are many other nostalgia-inducing variations on the traditional steamed pudding. You might like to try spotted dick, jam sponge pudding, chocolate sponge pudding with chocolate custard (another firm favourite from school dinners in the 1970s!) or a fruit sponge pudding with blackberries or other seasonal fruit in the bottom of the pudding basin! For a more contemporary sponge pudding, try an orange and ginger steamed pudding, or perhaps a blueberry and lemon curd sponge pudding.

Hopefully, we’ve given you plenty of inspiration for your own sponge pudding creations in this blog post. If you do make any of these recipes, we’d love to hear how you get on and, of course, if you have any of your own favourite recipes that you’d like to share with us, we’d be delighted to hear about them. Get in touch with us via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to share stories of your culinary adventures and photos of your creations.