rhubarb gingerbread pudding

"And so it begins...", said King Théoden (R.I.P. Bernard Hill.)

Also myself upon looking at my garden. Rhubarb season has begun and the "rhubarb empire" is growing larger with each passing day...

...resembling an exotic jungle for cats.

The Man gave me a Rhubarb cooking/baking book for Christmas so I've been eagerly awaiting rhubarb season to arrive to try out recipes. It's a quirky, little book called Rhubarbaria and it's full of sweet and savoury dishes the author has gathered from people all around the world along with a bit of rhubarb history and anecdotes. It's not a glossy, instagrammable book as it has no pictures but I think it's a gem. I'm especially looking forward to trying the jam recipes.

The rhubarb gingerbread pudding immediately appealed to me and became my first rhubarb experiment of 2024. Despite knowing rhubarb and ginger pair well together I hadn't ever considered rhubarb with a gingerbread cake. I also loved that the recipe originally came from a lady called Mavis from New Zealand. How could I be steared wrong by a Mavis?

Well, Mavis. Your pudding, especially after 2 days, is delicious. However, your timings are shocking. What was meant to be a 35-40 minute bake was actually at least 60 minutes. That's a fair old difference, Mavis.

But as I said, 2 days later served warm with custard it was exceptionally tasty. As with all gingerbread cakes the flavour and texture benefitted from maturing. This goes against the nature of hot puddings for me, which are always served fresh from the oven, but I guess this makes this pudding an excellent one to make in advance for an occasion.

What I liked most is that the rhubarb is left as its natural, tart self; no extra sugar before adding the cake mix. The cake is the sweet element, although that didn't feel overly sweet either. However I would say if you're using a particularly tart or green rhubarb you may want to add additional sugar. My rhubarb is naturally on the sweet side as it's very pink so it was perfect for me.

I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Mavis.

Rhubarb gingerbread cake 

Mildly adapted from "Rhubarbaria" by Mary Prior

450g/ 1lb rhubarb

25g/ 1oz muscovado sugar 

25g/ 1oz soft dark brown sugar

100g/ 4oz Stork margarine (or softened butter)

50g/ 2oz golden syrup

1 large egg 

150g/ 6oz plain flour

Pinch of salt

1tsp ground ginger 

1/2 tsp mixed spice

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 

1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda 

2 tbsp hot milk

Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/375F and grease a baking dish with butter. My dish measured 16cm wide x 24cm long x 6cm deep and I found it was a suitable size.

Wash and dry your rhubarb stalks then chop up into 1" chunks. Arrange in the bottom of the baking dish. Add a sprinkling of extra sugar if you want a sweeter flavour.

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy (about 5 minutes) then mix in the syrup. Add the egg and mix again until combined. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, salt and spices then add to the egg mixture and mix until combined. Finally, in a cup or small bowl dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the hot milk then add this to the cake mixture and mix again.

Spread the cake mixture over the rhubarb in the dish. It's quite a thin spread so don't be alarmed if it doesn't cover well.

Bake in the oven for approx. 1 hour. I put a layer of greaseproof paper over the top of the dish after 40 minutes to stop the top from burning but allow the middle to continue baking.

Serve warm with cream, ice cream or custard. Alternatively leave it to cool fully, store in the fridge (with a cover on top) for at least a day then reheat and serve. This will enhance the gingerbread flavour.

Betty's rhubarb - a crumble and a tart

Dare I say it, but I think I can almost see a glimpse of light at the end of the house renovating tunnel. The demolishing stage felt neverending, but things are finally going back in. Plumbing  is underway, the rewiring is nearly finished and new insulation and plasterboard are going up. Plasterboard automatically makes the space look cleaner and brighter which is exciting.

There have been a few "oh my god, WHAT?!" discoveries and eyebrow raising moments in my six months of house-ownership, but thankfully they have been manageable and fixable without too much cost rather than devastating.

One of the more pleasant discoveries was finding rhubarb growing in the overgrown garden. I didn't expect to find anything edible growing there so it felt like a real treat. Thanks, Betty!

*Betty was the elderly lady who owned the house before me. We found a *lot* of her stockings tied round bits of trees when we were excavating the garden a couple of weeks ago. An elderly neighbour also told me she used to keep clothes in her microwave?! She sounds like quite a character!

As there wasn't a huge amount of rhubarb to use I baked a crumble and bulked it out with two eating apples. I also added a sprinkling of ginger and cinnamon since they pair well with rhubarb. The resulting crumble was incredibly tasty although perhaps a touch on the sweet side. I guessed the sugar quantity and underestimated how much sweetness the eating apples would add to the filling.

Lovely red filling! 

A few weeks ago I trimmed off more rhubarb with the intentions of making another crumble, but my Mum suggested a tart instead. After a raid of the fruit bowl I ended up making an apple, nectarine and rhubarb frangipane tart.

It was a very spur-of-the-moment decision to make a tart, so I used a roll of shop-bought shortcrust pastry from the freezer rather than make my own. Some may frown, but I am absolutely ok with the occasional baking shortcut, particularly when it comes to pastry... and custard powder. I have no shame.

Speaking of custard powder, this tart tasted even better the following day served with custard. Custard made from powder *and* shop bought pastry in one photo/pudding. Told you, no shame.

I definitely felt I achieved a better balance with the sweetness in this tart. I also liked the more fragrant, summery addition of vanilla and nectarine compared to my more autumnal flavoured crumble. My only disappointment with this tart was that it could have done with a few more minutes in the oven as I think there was a slightly underbaked bit of frangipane right next to the fruit layer. At least my pastry wasn't soggy. No soggy bottoms here!

On the whole though, as a spontaneous bake I was pretty pleased with my effort. It's also the first tart I've made in quite a few years. (Holy moly, last time was in 2012 if I don't count mini tarts I made in 2014. Seriously?!) Next time I'll have to be more organised and make my own pastry.

Rhubarb and apple crumble 
I recommend reducing the sugar quantity if you prefer a sharp rhubarb flavour.

fruit filling: 15oz (425g) red rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch chunks
3oz (85g)  caster sugar
2 eating apples, cored and chopped into similar sized chunks
sprinkling of ground cinnamon and ginger

crumble:
4oz (115g) butter (I use slightly salted)
6oz (175g) plain flour
2oz (55g) porridge oats
3oz (85g) soft brown sugar

Preheat oven to 190C/ Fan 170C/ Gas 5 and grease a pie dish with butter. Chop up the fruit for the filling and put into a saucepan along with the sugar and spices. Gently simmer on the hob for a few minutes until soft, but not pulpy. Pour the mixture into the pie dish.

For the crumble topping, rub together the butter and flour in a mixing bowl then mix in the porridge oats and sugar. Spoon the mixture on top of the fruit filling in the dish. Bake for 30 - 40 mins. Serve warm with custard or ice cream. Or both if you're feeling decadent!


Rhubarb, nectarine and apple frangipane tart.

fruit filling:
7oz (200g) rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch chunks
3 nectarines, chopped into similar sized chunks
2 eating apples, cored and chopped into similar sized chunks
a sprinkling of cinnamon (under 1/4tsp)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

one pack of ready roll shortcrust pastry (or make more own)

frangipane topping:
4oz (115g) caster sugar
4oz (115g) softened butter
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
4oz (115g) ground almonds
1oz (28g) plain flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
a handful on flaked almonds for the topping

Requires an 8 inch (20cm) tart/flan tin.

If you're making your own shortcrust pastry, prepare that first. If you're using shop-bought, roll it out big enough to cover the base and sides of the tin. Press it into the tin (using a left over scrap of pastry to push it into the grooves/sides of the tin) and prick the base with a fork. Cover with tin foil and weigh down with baking beans to stop the pastry from puffing up in the oven. I also leave the edges hanging over the tin and trim them back after the tart comes out the oven. 

Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6, until you can see the pastry turning golden, then remove the foil and beans and put back in the oven for a further 2 minutes to help dry the pastry out. 

Whilst your pastry case is in the oven make the fruit filling. Chop all the fruit in similar sized chunks and put into a large saucepan along with the cinnamon and vanilla. Gently simmer on the hob for a few minutes until everything has softened. Leave to cool whilst you make the frangipane topping.

Turn the oven temperature down to 180C/Fan 160/Gas 4. For the frangipane, beat together the sugar and butter with a mixer for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add in the ground almonds, flour and vanilla extract and mix until everything is fully combined.

Pour the cooled fruit filling in the base of the tart case, followed by the frangipane mixture, which may need a bit of coaxing over the fruit filling with a palette knife as it's a stiffer mixture. Make sure the frangipane fully covers the fruit filling. Sprinkle a handful of flaked almonds over the top. 

Bake in the oven for at around 35 minutes until golden on top and the frangipane is firm to touch. (I forgot to write down how long it was in the oven for, but it was definitely over 30 minutes so keep an eye on it after half an hour),  Serve warm, but not hot, or completely cool. Both are delicious. Cream, ice-cream or custard make lovely accompaniments.

self saucing lemon pudding

I had 30 minutes to organise a pudding before World's Strongest Man came on tv this evening. I glanced at what was in the fruit bowl, flicked through my ever reliable Mary Berry Baking Bible and arrived at the hot lemon souffle pudding. Strongest Man came on just as the pudding went in the oven so my timing was bang on and the pudding was ready to eat by the end of the programme. Result!

I haven't decided who I'm supporting in Strong Man this year. Hafthor Bjornsson is obviously pretty bloody awesome but it's hard not to root for Zydrunas Savickas or Brian Shaw. Ultimately nobody will ever replace my love for Magnus Samuelsson; he was the best. I still miss the big Swede.

The pudding was a big hit. Dad proclaimed it was "outstanding", my brother who generally isn't fussed with lemon flavours said it was "hellish good" and Mum went for seconds. We easily polished it off between the four of us.

I think this was better than the last lemon pudding I made a few years ago, which I think was a Rachel Allen recipe. It's tart yet sweet and has lovely textures: soft, almost moussey sponge on with a glubby, lemon custard/sauce underneath.

Now I have to tackle the pile of dishes...

Lemon pudding
Recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

75g (3oz) softened butter
250g (9oz) caster sugar
3 large eggs, separated
75g (3oz) self raising flour
grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
450ml (14 fl oz) milk

Preheat the oven to 190C/170 Fan/Gas 5. Grease a shallow 1.5L (2 1/2pt) ovenproof dish. (I forgot to grease, but it was fine.)

Beat together the sugar and butter in a large bowl. Mix in the egg yolks followed by the flour, lemon rind and lemon juice. Pour in the milk in a steady stream whilst mixing. The mixture will look a bit curdled but don't worry, that's fine. In a separate (clean, grease free!) large bowl whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Carefully fold the eggs into the other mixture using a metal spoon.

Pour the mixture into your ovenproof dish and place in a large roasting tin. Pour in enough boiling water into the roasting tin to come halfway up your dish. It's easier to do this at the oven door with the tray already on the oven shelf, otherwise you risk spilling when carrying it to the oven!

Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until golden brown on top. Mine was looking quite golden at about 40 minutes but I wasn't sure it was fully cooked yet so I turned down the temperature a bit for the remaining 20 minutes. I recommend keeping an eye on the oven in case you find yours bakes quickly too. Serve immediately with a dusting of icing sugar.

Dad's birthday clootie dumpling

Last weekend Dad requested a clootie dumpling for his birthday bake of choice. For all the non Scottish folk reading, this is basically a fruit cake boiled in a cloth i.e. a "cloot."

Clootie dumplings, also known as clootie puddings or duffs, can vary in recipe. Some people include suet and breadcrumbs or extra fruit such as grated apple, dates or orange zest, but the recipe I use (from my Aunty Janice) is fairly plain: lots of treacle and golden syrup, spice and sultanas.

It's one of those old fashioned, heavy, wintery puds which will divide opinion. I was unsure whether it would appeal to my nephews so I also baked a plain sponge cake, but I think the pudding went down pretty well with everybody.

My clootie was a bit drier in texture compared to the last one I made a few years ago (probably because I accidently almost boiled it dry!) but the flavour was still great - treacley, spiced and comforting with juicy bursts of sultanas.

Perfect served warm from the pot with a dollop of ice cream.

Aunty Janice's clootie dumpling

Janice's method is to wrap the mixture in a greased and floured layer of greaseproof paper before wrapping up in a damp dishcloth to boil, which means all the grubbiness goes on the paper instead of the cloot. It makes washing up easier!

1lb plain flour

8oz margarine

6oz caster sugar

1 lb dried fruit such as sultanas or raisins

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 beaten egg

2 dessert spoons treacle

2 dessert spoons golden syrup

enough milk to moisten

Lay out two large lengths of greaseproof paper, overlapped - enough to wrap round your pudding which will end up roughly 7 inches in diameter. Thoroughly grease with margarine (including the overlap to help it stick) and dust with a coating of flour. This will form the clootie's "skin." Dampen a plain dishcloth and lay it out. 

Put a flat, heat proof side plate in the bottom of a large, heavy based pot (for your clootie to sit on.) Fill the pot with about 1L water and put on the hob to warm up at a low heat.  

In a very large bowl rub together the flour and margarine. Stir in the sugar, fruit, bicarbonate of soda and spices. In a small saucepan heat up the treacle and syrup until warm then remove from the heat and add a drop of milk to cool it down. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the egg and cooled treacle mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is combined and add a little more milk if needed. The mixture should stay fairly thick though, reluctant to drop off the spoon.

Heap the mixture into the centre of the greaseproof paper sheet then gather the paper edges up over the mixture. Tie tightly together with a length of string, leaving about an inch of space between the mixture and where you tie to allow it to grow during cooking. Wrap the damp dishcloth over the top and tie the ends together on top of your previous tie.

Pop the clootie into the pot and add more water to the pot until it's about half way up the pudding. Put the lid on top and leave to boil at a low heat, with the plate lightly rattling at the base of the pot, for 3 hours. Check on it every half hour or so to top up with more water if necessary. Do not boil it dry!

After 3 hours remove from the pot and untie from the cloth and paper. It's best served warm with cream, ice cream or custard, but it is also lovely cold. 

toffee apple pecan pudding

This is what I made for pudding on Christmas day. As we had our main family dinner on Christmas Eve with our traditional trifle I had free reign for pudding ideas on Christmas day. I've had this recipe tucked away for a year or two so I felt it was about time I tried it.

I thought a steamed/boiled pudding was a really good choice as it can be left to simmer away on the hob while you finish attending to/eating your Christmas dinner.

It's a very sweet pudding, toffee obviously being the predominant flavour, so you can make your mind up whether that's a good or bad thing. Personally, I always think it's good. As much as I love cheese, I will never understand people who pick the cheese and biscuit platter as a dessert at restaurants. Really, that's not a dessert!

I really liked the addition of apples to what is essentially a sticky toffee pudding. It added a freshness to an otherwise rich dessert. It was the perfect comforting pudding to tuck into at the end of Christmas day.

So what did you all make for Christmas? Do you tend to make the same thing or try a new pudding each year?

Toffee apple pecan pudding

A Mary Berry recipe. Copied down off the tv whilst watching one of the Great British Bake Off Masterclass episodes last year (I think.)

For the toffee sauce:

300ml pouring cream (I used double cream)

100g light muscovado sugar

75g softened butter

For the pudding:

A 2pt pudding basin, greased with butter

125g light muscovado sugar

125g softened butter

2 beaten eggs

125g self-raising flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large cooking apple - peeled, cored and chopped into small chunks

75g pecans, chopped

 Put all the toffee sauce ingredients in a saucepan and stir over a low heat for roughly 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Pour 1/2 the toffee sauce into the bottom of the greased pudding basin, followed by half of the chopped pecans.

In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and muscovado sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Add the vanilla extract and self-raising flour and mix until just incorporated. Fold in the chopped apple. Pour the pudding mixture into the pudding basin, on top of the sauce (mine went in as a big lump so don't worry if you can't smooth it out, it didn't seem to affect the finished pudding.) 

Cut out a disc from greaseproof paper and lay it on top of the basin. Lay out a large square of foil and fold a pleat in the centre (to allow steam to escape) and seal the foil around the basin. Fold a rectangular strip of foil to make a cradle for lifting the basin. Place a jam jar lid or a sideplate in the centre of a large saucepan/pot (must be taller than the pudding basin) and place the basin on top. Half fill the pot with boiling water and put the lid on. Leave to simmer for 2 1/2 hours.

When ready to serve, reheat the sauce with the remaining pecans and turn out the pudding on a large dish. The pudding easily serves four people.

apple, blackberry and almond crumble

Last week mum and I had a crumble craving. Embarrassingly, I could probably count the number of times I've made a crumble on one hand. They're so quick and easy to make, not to mention incredibly tasty and comforting, that I have no idea why I don't make them more often.

Probably because I would become morbidly obese if I allowed myself to make pudding every night.

But at least with crumble you get to fool yourself that it's nearly healthy. Look, it has *two* types of fruit!

Sweet, buttery crumble with tart blackberries and apples. What's not to like? I toyed with the idea of using cinnamon but went with almond instead. I liked the sweetness and extra texture it added to the crumble topping. 

Apologies for the shoddy night time photographs, the grainy quality is pretty horrific. No amount of brightness or contrast could help, but the crumble was too tasty not to share.

Apple, blackberry and almond crumble

I didn't particularly follow a recipe, but this is roughly what I did:

filling:

1 small packet of blackberries

5 or 6 small eating apples - peeled, cored and cut into chunks

demerara sugar for sprinkling over the fruit

crumble:

100g plain flour

100g butter, cubed plus extra for greasing the dish

100g demerara sugar

50g rolled oats

50g ground almonds

handful of flaked almonds

Preheat the oven to 180C/160 fan/Gas 4 and butter a small ovenproof dish. Cut up enough fruit to sufficiently fill your dish. Once you're happy with the amount, sprinkle demerara sugar on top. The amount you use will depend on personal taste or the type of fruit used. At this point you could choose to soften the apples by lightly simmering/stewing them in a pan with a small amount of water, but we were lazy and didn't so our apples were still a little bit crunchy (which I quite liked.)

To make the crumble topping, rub together the butter and flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, oats and ground almonds. Sprinkle your crumble mixture on top of the fruit in the dish and scatter a handful of flaked almonds on top. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for roughly 40 minutes until the crumble topping has browned. Serve warm with custard, cream or ice-cream. Personally, I'm a fan of Bird's custard :)

Hot lemon pudding

There was a time when I didn't like lemon. It's hard to believe considering it's now one of my favourite cake flavours. This is the pudding which changed my mind and I've never looked back.

One of my flatmates in my first year of university made this pudding as part of our "Communal Meals Saturday" and although I had grown up thinking I wasn't that fussed with lemon I thought I'd give it a go.

I loved this pudding. A soft spongey crust with a warm, zesty lemon curd oozing underneath. What's not to like? (A flatmate's drunk friend "visiting" later on that night and dipping her fingers through our pudding. We weren't best pleased.) It's comforting yet fresh and light so you can have seconds without feeling stodgy later on. Always a good thing.

If you're a fellow lemon lover then I would recommend adding this to your baking repertoire. Rachel Allen's recipe can be found here. I'll definitely be making it again now that I have been reunited with the recipe. It also gives me an excuse to use my polka dot heart shaped dish.

Pudding glorious pudding!

At Christmas my family usually makes sticky toffee pudding and trifle (we're greedy). Some people prefer the one pudding over the other so it keeps everybody happy. I eat both though (told you, GREEDY!) Occasionally we shake it up some years and make a Christmas pudding instead, but usually we find it a bit heavy and rich on the stomach after a rich dinner.

Words cannot describe how amazing homemade sticky toffee pudding is. I've tried a few in different restaurants but I think ours has the edge. The toffee sauce tastes sooo good.

Despite burning the sponges for the trifle (oops!) it tastes great too. I had some for lunch today.

I thought I'd include the recipe for the sticky toffee puddings in this post. It's definitely a recipe worth sharing, everybody should try this! Although please don't blame me if you gain an extra few pounds because of it.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Recipe from a family friend. Sorry all the measurements are in ounces. They can be converted easily in an online weight converter though.

For the date sponge

4oz marg.

4oz caster sugar

2 eggs (mine were large)

8 oz chopped dates

80z self raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

1/2 pint boiling water

Chop the dates into a bowl then add the bicarbonate soda and boiling water. I then left it to sit for 20-30 mins. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease and line a 30 x 23cm (12 x 9 inch) traybake tin. Cream the marg and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs and flour, then the date mixture. Mix until combined and pour into the tin. Bake on the middle shelf for approx. 20mins or until well risen/firm to touch.

For the toffee sauce

8oz butter

8oz dark brown soft sugar

1/2 pt double cream

Melt the butter and sugar together and add the cream (although my mum says you can throw it all together). Gently boil together for a few minutes then try not to drink it all before the traybake is ready!