Liquorice pudding

I was intrigued when I discovered this liquorice pudding in Nigella Lawson’s Nigellissima cook book. I love the flavour of liquorice; in ice cream, in All Sorts… and now in a creamy pudding.

Nigella recommends you use Amarelli Rossano liquorice pellets (which were out of stock when I tried to buy some), but there are a few other brands available such as Simpkins Nipits, Barkleys pure liquorice pellets and Bel Canto imps (which are little rounds rather than pellets).

Liquorice pellets were originally produced as aids to clear the throat; natural liquorice is a mucoactive agent, which means that it helps to clear mucus from the airways. Perfect little cough & cold sweets!

The recipe quantities make two little puddings – perfect for Justin and me. It’s easy to up the amounts if you’re making it as a family or dinner party dessert. It’s a quick dish to make, it can be prepared in advance and chilled and is just gorgeous. Don’t forgo the addition of the sprinkling of salt flakes as you eat – it really does lift the flavour – like salted caramel.

Click here or on the image below to save Nigella’s liquorice pudding to Pinterest

Liquorice pudding

Nigella Lawson

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Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

60 ml/2 fl oz water
1 tsp pure liquorice pellets
2 tbsp light brown muscovado sugar
175 ml/6 fl oz double cream
2 tsp cornflour
1 tbsp milk
sea salt flakes

Instructions

Put the water and liquorice pellets into a small saucepan (such as a milk pan) and bring to the boil, stirring or whisking frequently to help the liquorice melt
Once it starts bubbling, turn off the heat and leave for 5 minutes, stirring or whisking every now and again
Turn the heat back on and whisk in the sugar, then the cream, and bring up to a bubble. Remove from the heat.
Spoon the cornflour into a little bowl, cup or ramekin and slake it with the milk: which is to say, whisk in the milk until you have a smooth paste
Pour this, whisking as you go, into the mixture in the saucepan. Still whisking, put the pan back on the heat and bring back up to a bubble, whisking all the while, for 20-30 seconds, or until thickened
Divide between 2 heatproof glasses or cups and - unless you want to eat this hot - cover, touching the surface of the puddings, with cling film or baking parchment that you've wet with cold water then wrung out (this is to prevent a skin forming) and put them in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Allow the puddings reach room temperature before serving. Remove the cling film/parchment and smooth the tops with the back of a teaspoon. Put the salt flakes on the table to sprinkle over as you eat, if desired

Keyword liquorice, pudding

Cakes & Bakes: Marzipan-stuffed prune flan

Every so often, I treat myself to a bag of Agen prunes. In my opinion, they’re far superior to the usual supermarket prunes. They’re great straight out of the packet and chopped up and added to a bowl of porridge or cereal. I also like cooking with them – like I did with this marzipan-stuffed prune flan.

I made a few little tweaks to the original recipe that I found in my Cordon Bleu Winter Puddings cookery book.

Special Agen prunes aren’t necessary for the dish; any dried, whole, pitted prunes are suitable. I used an equivalent quantity of Pedro Ximénez sweet sherry instead of the red wine stipulated. I also substituted the redcurrant jelly for some damson jam given to us at Christmas by a neighbour. Feel free to swap the original ingredients back in, if that’s what you’d prefer!

This dish, at first, may seem a bit of a convoluted one to make. Don’t be put off, just break things down into phases; it’s well worth the effort. If necessary, some stages can be done days in advance; soaking the prunes and making the almond pastry.

You could even make it the day before you plan to serve it. Be aware though, because of the cream and the egg white, the flan should be kept chilled in the fridge.

The flan is rich and decadent, a lovely dessert course for a dinner party. Serve a slice at the end of the meal accompanied by a glass of sweet sherry or other dessert wine such as Muscat or Madeira.

Click here or on the image below to save this prune flan recipe to Pinterest

Marzipan-stuffed prune flan

Cordon Bleu - Winter Puddings

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Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Ingredients

For the prune topping

350 g/¾oz prunes
¼ pt sweet sherry
3 tbsps damson jam

For the pastry

170 g/6oz plain flour
45 g/1½oz ground almonds
45 g/1½oz caster sugar
115 g/4oz butter cold, cubed
1 egg yolk
1-2 tbsps cold water

For the custard cream

1 rounded tbsp custard powder
150 ml/¼pt whole milk
150 ml/¼pt double cream
1 tsp caster sugar

For the almond filling

60 g/2oz ground almonds
1½ tsp caster sugar
1½ egg white beaten

Instructions

For the prune topping

Soak the prunes in the sherry for 2-3 hours
In a lidded saucepan, simmer the prunes in the sherry until tender
Lift the prunes our of the saucepan using a slotted spoon and set aside to cool
Cut the prunes carefully down one side and remove stones (ignore this step if you bought pitted fruit)
Add the damson jam to the liquor and set on a low heat to melt, whisking and straining at the end, if necessary, to get a smooth glaze

For the pastry

Using a food processor, pulse together the flour, ground almonds and caster sugar with the cold cubes of butter. When the mixture looks uniformly crumbly, add the egg yolk and sprinkle a tablespoon of cold water evenly over the top and continue to pulse until the mixture comes together into a ball. Add another tablespoon of water if necessary
Cool the ball of pastry, in a zip-lock bag, in the fridge for half an hour to an hour
Roll out the pastry and line a 18-20cm/7-8" diameter flan dish
Bake blind
Set aside to cool

For the custard cream

In a small saucepan, mix the custard powder and milk to a paste. Using a wire whisk, stir over a gentle heat until boiling
Tip into a steep-sided mixing bowl and whisk well
When well cooled, whip the double cream, sweeten with the sugar and fold into the custard

For the almond filling (marzipan)

Using a (mini) food processor, pulse together the ground almonds, caster sugar and egg white until it forms a ball
To bring everything together
Carefully stuff each prune with about a teaspoon of the marzipan
Fill the cooled flan case with the custard cream mixture, spreading it evenly
Arrange the filled prunes evenly over the top of the custard cream trying to cover it completely
Brush or spoon the glaze over the top
Slice and serve

Keyword flan, fruit tart, marzipan, prunes

Cakes & Bakes: Slow-cooker chocolate rice pudding

With the recent cold and snowy conditions outside, we’ve been ramping up our dinners with hot desserts. We’ve enjoyed home-made rice pudding twice this week; the first was a baked one, cooked in the oven. The one we’re sharing here is a chocolate rice pudding, made in a slow-cooker.

Rice pudding is probably one of the most ‘un-labour-intensive’ desserts you can make. You practically switch on your slow-cooker, pour all the ingredients into the bowl, give it a stir, put the lid on and leave it for a couple of hours. You can lift the lid, take a peek and give it a stir if you want… but even that isn’t completely necessary.

After 3 or so hours, you’ll have hot, creamy, chocolatey rice pudding ready to enjoy. I like to eat mine hot and quite thick, Justin prefers his cool and a thinner consistency. How do you prefer yours?

The good thing about making rice pudding in a slow-cooker (rather than baking in an oven) is that, as it’s cooking, if it’s looking to thick for your taste, you can add a little bit more milk and stir every so often to make sure it’s just as you like it.

Make sure you use short-grain pudding rice or Italian Arborio rice. It’s a lot more absorbent than long grain rice and produces a creamy pudding with firm grains.

Click here or on the image below to save my slow-cooker chocolate rice pudding to Pinterest

Slow-cooker chocolate rice pudding

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Cook Time 3

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Servings 4 servings

Equipment

Slow cooker

Ingredients

50 g unsalted butter
100 g pudding rice
500 ml milk full cream
3 tbsp cocoa powder
300 ml double cream
75 g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Turn on the slow-cooker to high and add the butter
When the butter has melted, add the pudding rice, stirring to coat all the grains
Add about a ¼ of the milk and stir
Once the slow-cooker contents have warmed up again, add the cocoa powder and stir well to combine
Pour in the rest of the milk, followed by the cream stirring to mix in. Put the lid on and let the contents warm up again
Once warm, add the caster sugar, stirring to dissolve
Stir in the vanilla extract. Replace the lid
Cook for 3 hours. After the first hour, you could stir the pudding to make sure the consistancy it to your liking. If it's too thick, add a little more milk and replace the lid. Repeat after another hour and again, just before it's finished cooking

Slow-cooker chocolate rice pudding ingredients

Keyword chocolate, rice, rice pudding

Cakes & Bakes: Rhubarb and vanilla sponge pudding

We have a fairly ‘home-grown’ Cakes & Bakes recipe this week; it’s a rhubarb and vanilla sponge pudding. The rhubarb was grown on our veg patch…

…and the eggs came from our very own little hen, Shirley.

The recipe I used states 1kg of rhubarb is required – that’s the trimmed weight. I think I completely overestimated how much we had growing; I just about scraped together 500 grams. No problem, I simply halved the recipe.

The trick of coating the raw, sliced rhubarb in a mixture of vanilla-infused sugar and flour worked a treat – something that can be done for all manner of stewed fruit. It helped create a thick, sweet, flavoursome syrup.

When I was spooning it over the pre-cooked rhubarb, the sponge batter seemed a bit thick however it was the perfect consistency once the pudding was baked. The sponge top needs to stand up to the pouring over of cream or hot custard.

Of all the rhubarb recipes I’ve made over the years, Justin and I agreed that this tops the lot.

As soon as our rhubarb crown has produced another 500 grams worth of stalks, I’ll be making this again!

Click here or on the image below to save the rhubarb and vanilla sponge pudding recipe to Pinterest

Rhubarb and vanilla sponge pudding

2020-04-19 17:06:13

Serves 6

Cook Time

35 min

Cook Time

35 min

Ingredients

1 vanilla pod
300g/10½oz caster sugar
2 tbsp plain flour
1kg/2lb 3oz forced rhubarb (trimmed weight)
115g/4oz lightly salted butter, softened
2 eggs
150g/5¼oz self-raising flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
3 tbsp milk
Icing sugar for dusting

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Instructions

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4
Slit the vanilla pod open lengthways and scrape out the seeds with the tip of a knife into a mixing bowl (save the pod for later)
Add 185g/6½oz of the sugar and mix them with your fingertips, then stir in the plain flour
Wipe the rhubarb stalks clean, cut into 5cm/2" pieces, then add to the bowl and toss to coat. Leave for 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until all the pieces of fruit are coated in sticky sugar/flour mix
Spoon the fruit over the base of a shallow 2-litre/3½ fl oz baking dish (the shallower the dish, the quicker the sponge will cook). It will look like quite a lot of fruit, but don't worry - it collapses during cooking
Cut the reserved vanilla pod into 4 pieces and poke them in amongst the rhubarb
Cover and bake for 15 minutes
For the sponge topping, beat the butter and remaining 115g/4oz sugar in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon (or an electric mixer) for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy
Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of the self-raising flour with the second egg
Beat in the vanilla extract
Sift over the rest of the flour and a pinch of salt, then gently fold in along with the milk using a metal spoon, trying to keep the mixture as light as possible
Remove the dish of rhubarb from the oven, discard the vanilla pod pieces and drop small spoonfuls of the sponge mixture roughly over the top of the fruit. Don’t worry about a few gaps, these will fill in as the sponge rises and cooks
Bake for about 35 minutes until the sponge is cooked through and crisp and brown on top Remove the dish from the oven and leave to sit for 10 minutes
Dust the top with a little icing sugar

Notes

Serve with pouring cream, ice cream or hot custard

Adapted from Delicious Magazine

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