 Can you please tell me how to make a sponge pudding with apples and honey done in a bain-marie? I used to do this many years ago but have lost the receipt.
Here is an easy and simple all-in-one sponge pudding on which you can base endless delicious variations. Golden syrup, jam, marmalade, Nutella, toffee or butterscotch sauce – all these can be put in the base of the pudding basin before adding the sponge mixture. When cooked and turned out onto a warmed serving plate, the chosen filling will cascade down leaving an estuary of sauce.
Ingredients
(Serves 4-6)
For the Sponge
115g (4oz) butter or soft margarine
115g (4oz) caster sugar
175g (6oz) self-raising flour
2 large eggs, beaten
½ tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tbsp milk
A little butter, for greasing
For the Filling
1 Bramley cooking apple, peeled, cored and chopped
3-4 tbsp clear honey
Method
Place all of the sponge ingredients apart from the milk in a bowl and beat well with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes. If using a machine, mix for 30 seconds, scraping down once. Finally add a little milk, if necessary, to produce a dropping consistency.
Butter a 1.1 litre (2 pint) pudding basin, and place the chopped apple and honey in the base. Pour over the sponge mixture and cover with a pleated disk of both baking parchment and foil and fix securely. Place on a trivet or small enamel plate in a saucepan and pour boiling water to come halfway up the side of the basin. Cover and bring to the boil and then continue with a medium boil for 30 minutes.
2, 3 and 4-Oven Aga
After 30 minutes’ boiling on the simmering plate, transfer the pudding, pan and water to the floor of the simmering oven for 1½ hours.
Note: if the roasting oven is not being used for other cooking, provided the pan used has metal handles (the Aga Cake Baker is perfect for this method), once the pan has come the boil and been covered with the lid, the initial 30 minutes’ pre-boiling can be undertaken with the pan on the floor of the roasting oven. Then transfer to the simmering oven as above.
Rayburn
After 30 minutes’ boiling on the simmering end of the hotplate, transfer the pudding, pan and water to the floor of the main oven at 120°C/250°F/gas mark L-1 for 1½ hours. Alternatively, with models featuring a cast-iron lower oven, this may be used in slow cooking mode if the main oven is at a moderate or higher setting.
Aga and Rayburn tip
Note that by using the oven method with an Aga or Rayburn, no topping up will be required and the room will not become steamed up as when cooking on the top of the cooker. |
