WARMING PUDS Hot desserts for cold nights from Donna Hay, Nigel Slater and Marcus Wareing
Impress your guests over Christmas with these cosy desserts from top BBC chefs
Cranberry butterscotch pudding
‘A light, brown-sugar sponge pudding with sharp fruits and creamy, butterscotch notes. Sticky without being heavy. You’ll need a jug of cream, or better still, vanilla ice cream.’
SERVES 6 (good cold too) PREP 15 mins COOK 45 mins EASY V
180g dried apricots
50g fresh or frozen cranberries
200ml boiling water 100g butter
150g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder 100g light muscovado sugar 1 egg for the sauce
100g light muscovado sugar 125ml double cream
70g butter
1 tbsp maple syrup
100g cranberries, fresh or frozen
1 Preheat the oven to 180C/160c/gas 4. Cut the apricots into small pieces and put them in a heatproof mixing bowl. Add the cranberries and pour the boiling water over. Set aside while you make the pudding. 2 Butter the pudding bowl with a small knob of the butter. Mix the flour and baking powder. Put the rest of the butter in the bowl of a food mixer. Add the muscovado sugar and beat until soft, pale and creamy, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. 3 Make the sauce: put the sugar, cream, butter and maple syrup in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Let it simmer for 2 mins, then roughly chop the cranberries (more easily done with frozen fruit in a food processor), adding them to the sauce.
4 Break the egg into a small bowl and beat lightly with a fork, just enough to mix the white and yolk, then add to the creamed butter and sugar. When the egg is fully incorporated, stir in the flour and baking powder mixture, turning slowly until there is no visible trace of flour left. Fold in the apricots and cranberries and the water they are in. Transfer the mixture to the buttered dish, smooth the surface, then bake for 25- 30 mins until pale gold and lightly firm on top. Remove from the oven and pour over half the cranberry butterscotch sauce, then return to the oven for a further 10 minutes. Leave to cool a little, then serve with the remaining heated sauce.
GOOD TO KNOW 1 of 5-a-day
PER SERVING 629 kcals • fat 36g • saturates 22g • carbs 69g • sugars 49g • fibre 5g • protein 6g • salt 0.8g