One thing that the British do really well is Puddings. And by that I don't mean the milky concoction that North American's see as pudding. Pudding in the U.K. is a term lovingly used to describe dessert!
And what a wonderful array of Puddings they have. Their desserts range from the simple and sublime to the truly decadent. Many of them are regional and of great historical value.
Many of them have really quirky names, such as Spotted Dick, which is a lovely buttery steamed pudding stuffed with currants. Steamed puddings are very popular there. They are truly lovely. Stodgy, sweet and comforting.
Most often than not when you are offered "pudding" you will be asked if you would like Custard with it, or cream, or maybe even both. In North America we would opt for ice cream or whipped cream.
But what is ice cream but frozen custard?
A very popular way to make custard in the U.K. is to use Bird's custard powder and it makes a very good custard. You can also make it from scratch. I have a brilliant recipe here to do just that. It is delicious served with sliced bananas.
With it being prime apple season here in Nova Scotia my sister has been canning apples over these past days. Its actually very easy to do, aside from the time consuming act of having to peel and core them.
She has figured out that five pounds of apples will produce five pints of canned apples. These apples here are the Japanese Melon Apples which we bought a week or two back. They are lovely sweet apples with a mild hint of melon in their flavor. A new variety I believe.
She's also been canning applesauce using the Sweet Tart Apples we bought at our local fam market. They are also a new variety and have proven to be very popular with customers according to the farm market.
With their pink flesh and sweet/tart flavor, they are perfect for eating out of hand with a lovely crispness, but they also are great for cooking and make excellent applesauce! I have not canned my applesauce, but frozen it in baggies, flat packed.
We both have a lot of deliciousness to look forward to over the winter months!
The other day she gifted me with a couple of jars of her canned apples. They looked lovely. I was keen to try them out. You could eat these as is, spooned into bowls as a quick dessert, perhaps sprinkled with some cinnamon, nutmeg and with a dollop of whipped cream on top.
That is what she is planning on doing for our father. He is there every day for supper and always looks for something sweet for afters. (Pudding)
They came out really delicious, not overly sweet. She packed them in a light sugar syrup. We both felt that in doing so the apples would retain more of their natural flavors and they did.
You can, of course, simply can them in water, but we both thought that water might leach out much of the goodness.
These turned out lovely, with a beautiful apple flavor, not too sweet, and slightly soft, like a canned pear might be. In fact I thought they were quite similar in texture to canned pears.
I was very keen to use them to bake something with and decided to use one of my jars to make a very traditional and very delicious and comforting British Pudding Called Eve's Pudding.
Also called Mother Eve's Pudding it consists of a layer of sweet eating apples baked beneath a Victoria Sponge layer of cake. It is one of those simple apple desserts that everyone loves, and is much easier to make than say, an apple crisp, might be. I thought it would be a perfect way to showcase these canned apples!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE EVE'S PUDDING
Very simple every day ingredients. I am showing you how to make the recipe with fresh eating apples, but I am also telling you how to use canned apples if you do have access to them.
- 1 pound (500g) apples (I used one pint of canned apples)
- 3 TBS sugar (I cut this in half as I used some apple syrup)
- 1 TBS butter
- 1 TBS lemon juice
- 2 TBS water (I used the syrup from the jar of apples)
- a sprinkle each of ground cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
- 1/3 cup (80g) softened butter
- 1/2 cup (100g) caster sugar (finely granulated sugar)
- 1 cup (140g) self-raising flour (see notes to make your own)
- 2 large free range eggs
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 TBS whole milk
Like I said, you can use fresh peeled and sliced apples or you can use canned apples as I did. Both work very well. I'll let you in on a little secret. Canned Apple Pie filling also makes an excellent base for the sponge. Shhh . . . you didn't hear that from me. ;-)
I know that self rising flour is not available everywhere so I have included how to make your own in the recipe notes.
HOW TO MAKE EVE'S PUDDING
This is really a very simple dessert to make. Your family will love this.
Peel, core and slice the apples. Put the apples in a large non-reactive saucepan along with the sugar, butter, lemon juice and water. Heat on a medium setting, stirring frequently until softened and beginning to fall apart. (As I used canned apples, I just heated the apples through with these ingredients.)
Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Butter a 2 pint pie dish. Pour the apples into this and then set aside. (Sprinkle on the cinnamon and nutmeg if using. Just a fine sprinkle of each.)
Beat the butter and sugar in a medium bowl with an electric whisk until smooth and creamy. You can also do this by hand with a wooden spoon if you don't want to go to the trouble of dragging out your mixer. Beat in the vanilla extract.
Add one of the eggs, followed by 1 TBS of the flour required by the recipe. (This keeps the mixture from curdling and splitting.) Beat until combined. Follow with the second egg and another TBS of the flour.
Add the remaining flour and the milk, mixing everything together just to combine.
Spoon the sponge mixture over top of the apples, spreading it out to completely cover them.
Bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out fairly clean, with just moist apple but no wet batter.
Serve warm, spooned into bowls with pouring custard, lashings of cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
This is a really delicious simple pudding/dessert. It is one the family is sure to love. The apples are not overly sweet, nor is the cake.
If you can, be sure to make some custard to pour over top in the British way! Otherwise lashings of cream or a scoop of ice cream will also be very delicious!
Some other traditional British Puddings that you might enjoy are:
MINCEMEAT AND APPLE PUDDING- A layer of sweet cooked apple is topped with a rich mincemeat cake batter prior to baking to perfection. Served warm with either warm custard sauce, lashings of heavy cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream, this always goes down a real treat!
BABY STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING CAKES- This is a personal favorite and something I baked often for dinner parties when I cooked at the Manor. One of the reasons I love it so much is that you can totally bake the cakes ahead of time, simply napping them with the sticky toffee sauce and reheating when it is time to serve. Of course you will want to serve lashings of cream with these for the ultimate taste experience!
Eve's Pudding
Ingredients
- 1 pound (500g) apples (I used one pint of canned apples)
- 3 TBS sugar (I cut this in half as I used some apple syrup)
- 1 TBS butter
- 1 TBS lemon juice
- 2 TBS water (I used the syrup from the jar of apples)
- a sprinkle each of ground cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
- 1/3 cup (80g) softened butter
- 1/2 cup (100g) caster sugar (finely granulated sugar)
- 1 cup (140g) self-raising flour (see notes to make your own)
- 2 large free range eggs
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 TBS whole milk
Instructions
- Peel, core and slice the apples.
- Put the apples in a large non-reactive saucepan along with the sugar, butter, lemon juice and water. Heat on a medium setting, stirring frequently until softened and beginning to fall apart. (As I used canned apples, I just heated the apples through with these ingredients.)
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Butter a 2 pint pie dish. Pour the apples into this and then set aside. (Sprinkle on the cinnamon and nutmeg if using. Just a fine sprinkle of each.)
- Beat the butter and sugar in a medium bowl with an electric whisk until smooth and creamy. You can also do this by hand with a wooden spoon if you don't want to go to the trouble of dragging out your mixer.
- Beat in the vanilla extract.
- Add one of the eggs, followed by 1 TBS of the flour required by the recipe. (This keeps the mixture from curdling and splitting.) Beat until combined. Follow with the second egg and another TBS of the flour.
- Add the remaining flour and the milk, mixing everything together just to combine.
- Spoon the sponge mixture over top of the apples, spreading it out to completely cover them.
- Bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out fairly clean, with just moist apple but no wet batter.
- Serve warm, spooned into bowls with pouring custard, lashings of cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
Notes
To make your own self rising flour: Measure 1 cup of flour (140g) into a bowl and whisk together with 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt.
Eves Pudding ..yum ... my mother used to make this 😊💐...and the Birds Custard too !
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