Apple pudding

Makes 8

Preparation time: 20 minutes  
Cooking time: 45 minutes 

Ingredients
400g eating apples, diced 
125ml water 
1 tbsp caster sugar 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
85g butter 
140g Demerara sugar 
2 eggs 
175g self raising flour 
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 
100ml milk 

Butterscotch Sauce 
100g light muscovado sugar 
50g butter 
250ml double cream 
50ml brandy 

Method
Heat the oven to 180c. 

Put the apples in a small pan with the water and caster sugar and for for 5 minutes on a medium high heat until tender but still holding it’s shape.  Drain and mix through the vanilla extract. 

Beat the butter and Demerara sugar until soft and creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time, thoroughly mixing after each.  Put in one third of the flour and gently fold through.  Add half of the milk and fold through followed by another third of the flour folding gently again, the rest of the milk and carefully incorporating and lastly the rest of the flour, gently folding once again.  Stir through the now cool apples.  

9 times out of 10 the mixture looks slightly curdled at some point in this process, don’t fret though it turns out perfectly. 

I like to serve these as individual puddings but you could serve this as one large dish as it traditionally would be.  I like to use 180ml pudding basins which I butter and then coat with flour.  Butter each pudding tin, put 2 tbsps of flour in one tin, you then want to tip into the next tin while twisting it so you coat every part - this is what stops it sticking. 

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, equal them out and keep adding batter until all the batter us used up. 

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. 

If you decide to do a large tart expect it to take 40-45 minutes. 

Meanwhile make your butterscotch sauce.  Put the sugar, butter, half of the cream and the brandy into a small saucepan and gently cook until the sugar dissolves.  Once the sugar has dissolved you want to bubble the sauce for 2 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in the rest of the cream. 

When the apple puddings are cooked, cover it in the sauce and serve. 

These heat up perfectly either in the oven on 180c for 15-20 minutes covered or in the microwave.