By Andrew Lewis
It's difficult to beat treacle sponge pudding on a winter's day, and this super-fast take on the recipe will get you out of the kitchen in record time. This is a very filling dessert, and the quantities below will make enough pudding for four or five hungry people.
Ingredients
1/2 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
3 tbsp treacle or jam, if you prefer
1 tbsp hot water
English custard or fresh cream
Directions
Step 1: Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric hand mixer, then beat in the eggs and flour.
Step 2: Grease a medium (roughly 1 1/2 pint) bowl, and pour in the treacle. Microwave the treacle on medium power for 30 seconds, or until the syrup has melted.
Step 3: Add 1 tbsp of hot water to the flour/egg mixture and mix in.
Step 4: Pour the flour/egg mixture into the bowl with the hot syrup, cover the top of the bowl with Saran wrap, and microwave on full power for 3 minutes, or until done.
Note: Microwave wattages vary; please watch your mixture carefully to make sure it does not overcook in the microwave. Also make sure your saran wrap is microwave safe. Not all plastic cling wraps are safe for microwave use.
Step 5: Leave the pudding to cool for 5-10 minutes, and then turn out onto a serving plate. Add a little extra treacle if you are feeling particularly decadent.
This is a full-bodied dessert that deserves to be served with English custard or fresh cream. A few summer berries will help to cut through the sweetness of this dish, and a strong, sweet coffee will finish the meal perfectly.
Emergency Custard:
If you don't have any custard powder on hand, you can mix up a batch using cornstarch, an egg yolk, milk, and vanilla essence. Mix 1 cup milk with 2 tsp cornstarch and bring to a boil while stirring. Remove from heat and beat in egg yolk and 1 tsp vanilla essence. Return the mixture to the heat, and continue stirring until it boils.
About the Author:
Andrew Lewis is a journalist, a maker, an ardent victophile, and the founder of the www.upcraft.it blog. He is currently studying for a PhD. in archaeometrics and 3D scanning at the University of Wolverhampton.
A bit put off by the "Emergency Custard" instructions: "If you don't have custard powder..."-shouldn't it be reversed? "If you are really short on time, use a powdered custard substitute."
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Normally I am a huge fan of 'real' custard made with egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and cream. For this dessert, however, I think that the thick, cornflour based custard works better. :)
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It make sense. If you don't have custard powder you can whip it up with the ingredients he mentions which most kitchens usually have. It's not about the time at hand but if you are out of custard powder. Thanks!
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It make sense. If you don't have custard powder you can whip it up with the ingredients he mentions which most kitchens usually have. It's not about the time at hand but if you are out of custard powder.
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This sounded so yummy, I decided to make it straight away. I followed the directions EXACTLY and put the cake in the bowl, covered with saran wrap and microwaved for 7 minutes. I thought this sounded like a really long time and before the 7 minutes were up, my baby and I were choking as toxic smoke was rolling out of the microwave. The plastic wrap had melted and the cake was black and smoking! I threw open all the windows and my microwave is currently off-gassing outside. I wanted to let you know of my experience so that someone doesn't ended up starting a fire or getting smoke poisoning. I'm afraid 7 minutes is too long. My microwave is just your run of the mill microwave. Nothing super powered or anything.
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Brooke, I am so sorry you had to experience this. I have emailed Andrew the author and am waiting for his reply. It could be that the wattages of microwaves are different in England. I've asked him to check. We will modify the recipe as soon as we hear back.
Cheers,
Natalie
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Hmm - Interesting in England treacle toffee is actually a hard toffee made with black treacle eaten around the 5th November (bonfire night) so it was rather confusing to read in the ingredients treacle toffee. It would just be called treacle or golden syrup as is shown in the photograph (Lyles Golden Syrup). I wonder if anyone else was confused - I am looking foward to making this as I do not have an oven in my apartment only a microwave.
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You're right. We've fixed the recipe and the printable PDF. Thanks for the catch.
Cheers,
Natalie
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