Dough the right thing

Nothing says ‘yum’ like banana golden syrup dumplings.

Unlike many Australians, I didn’t grow up eating golden syrup dumplings. Dessert at my house was a pared-back affair – maybe a piece of fruit, or a few slices of orange. Perhaps it was this dessert drought that made me into a non-dessert person. I can happily go days and days without eating anything sweet, but there are a few desserts that are my undoing. This is one of them. It was my husband Ross who first introduced me to these incredible pillowy sweet dumplings. He learnt the recipe from his mum, who is really the queen of simple, minimal-effort, maximum-comfort desserts. These light and fluffy dumplings are perfect for soaking up the treacly, delicious golden syrup sauce. My personal touch is the addition of banana, which amps up the caramel flavour.

INGREDIENTS

150g (1 1/2 cups) self-raising flour

50g butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces 1 egg

80ml (1/3 cup) milk

1 banana (about 120g), mashed vanilla ice-cream, to serve

For the syrup:

50g butter

165g (3/4 cup) brown sugar

3 tablespoons golden syrup

(can be substituted for honey or maple syrup)

TIP: the dumpling dough is best made just before serving. HOW TO

Place the flour in a bowl and add the butter. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture has a coarse, sand- like consistency.

Beat the egg together with the milk until combined, then stir in the mashed banana. Pour the egg mixture into the butter and flour mixture and stir together to make a wet dough.

To make the syrup, in a large, wide saucepan, melt the butter over a low heat. Add the sugar, golden syrup and 500ml (2 cups) of water and stir until combined.

Bring the syrup to the boil, then use a tablespoon to drop a golf ball-sized dumpling straight into the pan. Repeat until you’ve used all the dough – you should have around 8 to 10 large dumplings. Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for 15 minutes, until the dumplings are puffed up and a skewer inserted into the centre of one of them comes out clean.

To serve, place 1 to 2 dumplings in a small bowl alongside some vanilla ice-cream. Top with some of the syrup from the pan and scoff immediately. Serves 4-5 Family by Hetty Mckinnon is out now through Plum. As a special treat, we have five copies (worth $39.99 each) to give away, so head to frankie.com.au/win to enter. Recipe has been tweaked a little to fit frankie formatting.