Golden Syrup Dumplings, a comforting dessert

The night time temperatures have plummeted here so it's time to indulge with a warming dessert. I am often asked to make this dish for dessert when I am cooking for the whole family. However last time when we were away and I wanted to make them, I found it difficult to find a recipe that I liked online. So here is my favourite Golden Syrup Dumpling recipe which I recently rediscovered in an old school recipe book of mine, which was a relief as I thought I had lost the recipe forever. The whole story about this lost recipe was in my last post. This is comfort food in a bowl.  

The recipe was originally given to me by Theresa, a former work colleague, who was a qualified and talented book binder in a library where I worked, many moons ago. I really hope book binding hasn't become a lost craft in this digital age.

I like to make the dough for the dumplings in advance, and place them on a lightly floured plate, cover and refrigerate. them. This can be done a couple of hours before cooking them.. Place all of the syrup ingredients in a wide saucepan, ready to boil.

If you are very well organised with plating up your main course, the dumplings can be placed in the saucepan to simmer on a low heat and will be cooking as the main course is being eaten. Let the steam do the work. Dessert is then ready to be served following the main course. It's that easy. However it is important that your wide saucepan can maintain a low simmer for 10 minutes. I had trouble with that this time, as the thermostat on my stove top has decided to cause problems, and I can only maintain a low heat on the small hotplates, the large hotplates only work  at a high heat. I found a way around it, however it looks like we will be purchasing a new stove top in the near future. 

Let's start cooking:

Golden Syrup Dumplings: 4 servings

The Syrup

Syrup Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups water
1/2 cup white or lightly packed brown sugar (I use white)
2 tablespoons golden syrup
30 g butter

Dumplings: 

Makes approx 20 small dumplings

Ingredients:

1 cup self-raising flour
30 g butter
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup milk

Serves 4

Let's cook:

1. Prepare the syrup first so that you are ready for cooking the dumplings. Place water, sugar, golden syrup, and butter in a wide, shallow saucepan with a lid. Stir occasionally over low heat to dissolve sugar, and rest the sauce while you make the dumplings.
2. To make the dumplings, sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter to form crumbs with your fingers, then make a well in the centre of the mixture and add egg and milk. Mix gently so that ingredients are just combined. (Don't over mix). Add more flour if necessary until you have a dough which forms a ball. The consistency should be similar to a scone mixture.
3. Bring the prepared syrup to the boil. With floured hands, form dough into little balls and place, one at a time into the syrup. Alternatively, drop portions of dough from a spoon into the boiling syrup. Or prepare the dumplings in advance and keep them covered and refrigerated until ready to use.
4. Cover the saucepan immediately with a lid, and let the steam do it's work to create light, fluffy dumplings. Reduce heat and simmer until dumplings are cooked and well risen (about 6-10 minutes, depending on size). Don't overcook or they will be tough.

Preparing the syrup

Mix the flour and butter together to a crumbly mixture, I use my fingers

Add beaten egg and milk to dry ingredients

Mix to form a dough

Shape the dough into beautiful little dumplings

Simmer away

Serve immediately with warm vanilla custard, whipped cream or ice cream and enjoy.

I made a fresh  healthy tuna salad to eat as our main course, which we ate while the dumplings were cooking. This is a layered salad, using whatever I have on hand, and I love adding green peas and thinly sliced red onion for flavour, a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, a few olives, and then I just added a small can of tuna to each plate but any protein on hand would do. I topped it off with a dollop of homemade mayonnaise which is always delicious with salad. Making your own mayonnaise is so fast and easy and saves having to go and buy it. Here's the link to my recipe for home made mayonnaise.

It'll be a late night for us tonight. Mr. HRK and I love our tennis, and you may have heard that our very own Australian female tennis player, Ash Barty, is playing in the women's singles final at Wimbledon tonight. Ash is also a Queenslander as we both are, which makes it extra special. We are so proud of her and wish her all the best. She is the first Australian woman for 20 years  to play in a Wimbledon final. We plan to stay up and watch it live on TV and support Ash, and the match should start in about 30 minutes time at 11 pm. Hopefully it will only go to two sets, I'm not sure how I will stay up if it goes to three sets, but it will be so exciting, and I will give it my best shot. I can hear Mr. HRK making noises in the kitchen as I write this, so he will be preparing some sustenance for us to make it through the match, even though we had dumplings for dessert ha, ha.

Also, warmest wishes go out to everyone in lockdown in Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast and Wollongong where the Covid Delta variant seems to be spreading. It is such a worry. Hoping you are coping ok in your homes, and managing to stay healthy and happy. Mr. HRK and I send you our best wishes, let's hope this will be over soon. Keep safe.

Thanks so much for dropping by.

Best wishes

Pauline