Lizzies Toffee Apple Pudding

[lizzie]

Ok chaps and chapessess. This is not for dieters or people watching their weight/colesterol etc. This is a seriously yummy pud that is filled with lovely calories and is a real winter warmer.

Topping:

250g butter
250g light moscavado sugar
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 small dessert apples

Pudding mixture:

100g soft butter
50g light moscavado sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
2 eggs
150g self raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder.

Method:

Lightly grease a 2 pint pudding basin

First, make the topping. Slowly melt the butter and sugar in a small pan over a very low heat. Add the lemon juice and stir until all the sugar has dissolved and the sauce is smooth. Pour half the amount into the pudding basin and reserve the rest to serve with the pudding. (A small tip: when the pan is empty put it straight into hot soapy water and the pan will clean really easily.) Chop the apples into small pieces and stir into the sauce in the basin to caot the apple pieces.

Now for the sponge.

Measure all the sponge ingrediants into a bowl and mix until well blended with a wooden spoon or spatula. You can do this in a food processor but be careful not to over-beat the mixture. Spoon the mixture into the pudding basin until it comes 2/3 up the side of the pudding basin. Cover the basin with a square of buttered foil, making a pleat in the centre of the foil to allow the pudding to rise. The pudding can now be chilled at this stage or you can cook it straight away.

Transfer the pudding basin to a large pan and fill with hot water until it comes half way up the side of the basin. Cover the saucepan with a lid and simmer gently over a low heat for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until the sponge is cooked. Don't forget to check the water levels and top up if necessary with boiling water.

Turn out onto a warm plate, dust with icing sugar if you feel like and serve with the warmed toffee sauce, creme fraice, double cream or real vanilla custard.

[Tigger]

Sounds fab Lizzie - I've printed it out ready for the resident chef.

One of the things I like best about the people on this site is that they like cooking and eating as much as they do gardening. Most of my collegaues think I live in a parallel universe because we cook, bake, make preserves, etc. Mind you - they're the thin ones too!

[lizzie]

Exactly. I know of a woman in her twenties who doesn't know how to boil an egg!!!!

I mean, cooking isn't difficult. Even if you haven't made a dish before, the instructions are all there.

Mind you, i'm useless at making anything out of wood. I've got no sense of any spatial awareness. Then again, I haven't really been showen how to make a cold frame etc. I need someone to be with me, showing me stuff step by step.

As for cooking, I can do anything. I leaned at my mums side when I was a kid. Both my kids can cook. The ten year old could only do something like beans on toast or scrambled eggs but, when i;ve been bad with my back, he's been able to make himself something to eat. My 16 year old daughter is a fab cook. She won't starve when she goes to university.

I don't know why these life skills aren't taught more in schools or in the home.