Self-saucing Economical Date pudding

 

Do you ever need a quick but delicious pudding for dessert just because you want some comfort food in a hurry, or for just no particular reason?  Dear Readers, this is a simple uncomplicated post, which I think is in keeping with a dessert that is very easy to throw together. A self saucing pudding always hits the mark. This post is laced with nostalgia. The recipe is based on a pudding that Mr. HRK passed on to me from his Mum whose name was Jessie, a long time ago when we were first married. I've swapped out the currants and sultanas for dates this time and we love the result. All of the ingredients were already in my pantry so that was easy. 

This is also a very versatile recipe. Mr. HRK has in the past managed to eat half of it in one sitting with homemade boiled egg custard. We love it with ice-cream too, probably my preference, which is easier on those busy weeknights. We have a joke in our family about favourite family recipes, and I hear my family's voices in my head regularly, "Don't mess with the original recipe Mum". Sometimes I go a little bit deaf though and make a couple of tweeks to the recipe just to make life interesting. This pudding is the result, with dates added instead of sultanas and currants. You will have this pudding mixed up in a jiffy.

You might be asking is this recipe a little like a sticky date pudding? Truthfully, it's not as sweet or as rich. This lighter style of pudding was probably a precursor to the Sticky Date Pudding trend, which is very sweet and loaded with calories, however there is no denying it is delicious. I have fond memories of British pubs and Sticky Date Pudding. To my way of thinking though, Sticky Date Pudding is a special occasion sweet pudding. I bake it and serve it during the cooler weather if we have visitors for dinner. Whereas I would serve this simpler  Self-saucing Date Pudding for a much more low-key meal for family, an informal easy meal with friends,  or just for Mr. HRK and myself. 

Whilst I'm writing this, I am reminded there is a cost of living crisis in the community right now affecting many families and single people. It's really tough to manage financially for so many, right across the globe. I really hope though that people affected are still trying to cook simple meals with what they can afford, and that this pudding will be a dish that most families can afford to make as it is based on pantry essentials. Sub out the dates for sultanas if they are more affordable, Home Brand dried fruits in the supermarkets can be priced very economically. Feeding a pudding like this to the family ensures that at the end of the meal they are leaving your dinner table feeling satisfied, happy and very well fed.

This recipe is typical of those cooked in Australian kitchens back in the 50's, 60's and 70's but still holds it own today. I still love 'em.

Let's cook:

Ingredients:

1 cup SR flour (or sift 1 cup of plain flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder)

1/2 cup coarsely chopped dates, or any other dried fruits.  (Throw in some more 

if you like it really fruity.)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup sugar or 1/4 cup honey if you don't like things too sweet

pinch of salt

Syrup:

1 level tablespoon butter

1 level tablespoon golden syrup

1 cup boiling water

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180 deg. C

4 serves

Mix flour, coarsely chopped dates, milk, sugar and salt into a dough. Spoon the 

dough into a greased ovenproof pie dish.

Mix 1 cup boiling water with the butter to the golden syrup, and pour slowly and

 gently over the dough.

Bake for 30 minutes in a moderate oven, or at 180 deg. C.

It's preferable to eat this pudding as close as possible to taking it out of the oven so that the 

syrup doesn't soak into the cake.

Serve with ice cream, custard or whipped cream. I've elected for Chocolate 

ice-cream this time with Easter just around the corner.

I've previously also added dried blueberries to the batter instead of using currants, 

sultanas or dates in the past, as that's what I had left over one day from making

 my Rustic Blueberry Scones. I always try to keep a couple of packets of 

dried blueberries on hand as they come in so handy. It was also delicious.

 Sultanas and currants would have been much cheaper to buy when Jessie was 

making this dessert in the 60's and 70's. I don't remember ever seeing dried

 blueberries in my Mum's pantry during that era, they would have been a 

luxury item, however I love eating them now, but they are more expensive than 

the more common dried fruits.

Blueberry self-saucing pudding

Self-saucing Blueberry pudding just out of the oven

The following are photos from a previous time when I made this with plain mixed fruit 

out of a packet in a round pyrex pie dish for our family. It still tasted delicious.

 I can't remember it ever not being delicious regardless of what combination of dried

 fruits I used.

A version made at home with dried mixed fruits.

Here are the links to two other recipes of mine for Self-saucing Date Puddings. 

A Self saucing Sticky Date Pudding Traybake which I love to cook and a real favourite 

of Mr. HRK, and my Sticky Date Pudding for a large dinner party.

I need to repost the last one with new photos,  it is one of the oldest posts on my blog,

but it never fails me. It can also be baked as individual puddings.

On a technical note, for some reason I've been having some problems with the formatting of this post, so apologies in advance if it doesn't load into your browser very well. It could

 be that I've had the recipe on my blog in draft mode for quite a well, and copying it into

 a new format isn't working very well. Oh well, so be it. Please let me know if it comes across a mess to your browser and I will redo it.

Happy cooler days, hoping we have seen the last of the intense heat. Have a 

wonderful week my friends and please stay healthy.

This is an original recipe by Pauline McNee at Happy Retirees Kitchen, c 2024-.

Best wishes,

Pauline