Steamy
Apple pudding
Hello, here we are at 27.
Busy, busy as usual. Had a lovely weekend in Edinburgh visiting my friends and their adorable twins. Hung out with the wonderful Jess Elliott Dennison to pick her brain about self publishing your own book and we made yummy chocolate marmalade cake (recipe on instagram.) Plus I got to sample the delights of Lannan bakery, yes I did have to stand in line for an hour but felt like it went quickly. Was very challenging to choose from the vast array of perfect looking pastries got a lovely selection which were all tasty although I think my favourite may have been the simple straight up croissant.
It was my bake sale at Ancestrel wines on Sunday, which went very well thank you everyone who came. It was really nice to be in my South East London neighbourhood and then spend the afternoon sipping wine with my lovely friends who had come to support me.
My next event will be at Leila’s with Harry and Anna who will be selling their fabulous cider and Lunar calendars. You can expect all the things to compliment cider (quite a lot of savoury), think sausage rolls with quince ketchup, cheesy scones, apple turnovers and other delights. Sunday 30th November 11am-5pm.
So on to this week’s bake, as the weather has definitely taken a chilly turn, I thought I’d do an apple steamed pudding, it’s the ultimate Winter comfort pudding to have at your dinner table steaming soft sponge with sticky top, excellent with custard, cream, ice cream or all three!
The first steamed puds were usually savoury and made with a suety pastry, the sponge cousin came later, it is a lighter affair usually paired with syrup or treacle and suet free so vegetarian friendly. A lot of recipes seem to use self-raising flour, this was created by Bristolian Henry Jones in 1845 which he spent years trying to persuade the Navy to take on boats for the crew to have fresher softer bread (I assume Soda bread maybe) rather than the hard biscuits they relied so heavily upon, he did succeed in this. However I never have self-raising as it seems pointless for someone who always has flour and baking powder to hand!
“Why is Jones’ Patent Flour like the Sun?’
“ Because they are both original and self-raising, and their beneficial effects are alike appreciated in the Palace and the Cottage!”
Rather than using a golden syrup, I make an apple caramel mush to go on top but it does also work very well with marmalade. As I may have mentioned before I’m a big mush gal so always have some to hand through the apple season. 2025 is a mast year for apples and acorns if you’re interested. This means it’s a particular bumper crop, trees are full to bursting with fruit. This is a slightly unknown phenomenon that happens every 5ish years or so. It’s basically a survival tactic for nature, to ensure that after all the birds/insects/animals have had their fill there is still fruit left over to make sure more new trees can grow. It does sadly quite often mean a not so good year for the next season, so get your apple fill now!
