Apple and blackberry puddings

Serves 8

Preparation time: 10 minutes   
Cooking time:
30 minutes
Cooling time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
2 large green bramley apples, peeled and cored
10g butter and 125g butter, softened
75g caster sugar and 220g caster sugar
225g blackberries, washed
1 tablespoon jam (blackberry, blackcurrant, plum etc)
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 eggs
225g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
125ml milk

Equipment needed
6 pudding moulds
Greaseproof paper

Method
I like to use 180ml pudding basins which I butter and then coat with flour.  Cut out 8 circles of greaseproof paper the size of the bottom of your tins.

Butter each pudding tin and push the greaseproof paper into the bottom of the tin.  Put 2 tbsps of flour in one tin, you then want to tip the flour from one tin into the next tin while twisting and rotating so you coat every part with flour and it tips into the next tin - this is what stops it sticking.

Cut the apples into smallish pieces.  Melt a knob of butter in a saucepan, adding the apples and caster sugar. cook for 2-3 minutes before adding the blackberries and jam. Stir everything together and remove from the heat. Leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180c.

Start by taking your milk and putting it into the microwave for 20-30 seconds to take the chill off of it, this will help stop your mixture curdling.  Beat the butter and caster sugar in a stand mixer until thick and pale. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Mix the flour, baking powder and ½ tsp salt into a bowl. Add ¼ the flour mixture to your stand mixer and put on, when the flour is just incorporated (I find this only takes around 15 seconds), add ⅓ of the milk. Repeat this process until all the flour mixture and milk is added, you should end with adding flour and have a well combined smooth batter.

Put roughly 2 tbsps of the apple and blackberry mixture into each of the pudding tins, you may find that you will only need maybe ¾ of the mixture but it is delicious with ice cream so refrigerate or freeze whatever you don’t use.

Put the batter on the top carefully and don’t go above ¾ full.  To cook each one equally you need them to weigh the same amount, this might seem overboard but the best way to do this is to weigh them, fill them all roughly half way and then weight them again, equal them out and keep adding batter until all the batter us used up.  This step is obviously completely up to you, you can do it by eye as I often do.

Put them on a baking tray and cook until golden which is 20-25 minutes depending on your oven.  They should be risen and a cocktail stick or skewer should come out clean.  Cool in moulds for 5 minutes before inverting onto serving plates.

Serve with custard and cream.