I personally rather like winter. It’s a great excuse to rug up and hunker down for a few months and hibernate. It’s also a great opportunity to make and tuck into delicious comfort food – after all, it can make us feel that wee bit better about the colder months.
I have a few go-toes that I love for one reason and another and they are the sorts of puddings that you could roll out at a dinner party of just have for yourself on a cold winter’s night.
I’m a huge fan of Appleby Farm’s amazing A2 milk ice cream – if you haven’t tried it, you are really missing out. So, my recipes need to accommodate a generous dollop of their ice cream.
Recently, I was asked by Appleby Farms to share some of my recipes, pairing it with their ice cream. So, here are a couple of may faves; they are super easy to make and are delicious.
Apple & Rhubarb Crumble
This recipe is extra special as it was one of my dad’s favourite puddings and eating it on his anniversary always brings back fond memories.
6 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
Rhubarb (4 or 5 stalks) cut into pieces
2-an-a half dessertspoons of sugar (to taste)
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Place sliced apple and rhubarb pieces in saucepan and add a little water so fruit doesn’t stick to the saucepan (the fruit juices will naturally come out when cooking). Add sugar and stir with fruit. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook till fruit is soft. Remove from heat and place to one side.
120g self-raising flour
90g butter (cold and diced)
3 tablespoons dark muscovado sugar
3 tablespoons vanilla sugar
In a mixing bowl, sift flour and mix with butter, using your fingertips and rubbing the butter into the flour. Then add the sugars and mix well.
Grease oven-proof dish and pour apple and rhubarb into it, lastly covering it with the crumble.
Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until crumble is golden brown.
Serve with Appleby Farm’s vanilla bean ice cream – yum!
Sticky Date (ahem my husband doesn’t like dates :-)) Apricot pudding with Caramel Sauce
200g dried apricots (1 ½ cups seeded dried dates (250g))
1 ¼ cups boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda
Butter to grease the cake tin
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
60g butter
2 eggs
1 cup self-raising flour
Caramel Sauce
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
100g butter
300ml cream
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Put apricots (dates), the water and soda into bowl of food processor, place lid on processor and let it stand for 5 minutes.
Grease 20cm cake tin and line base of tin with a round of baking paper.
Add brown sugar and chopped butter to apricot (date) mixture, process by pulsing, about 5 seconds or until apricots (dates) are roughly chopped.
Add eggs, then four and process by pulsing for 5-10 seconds until all ingredients are mixed. Scrape any unmixed flour into the mixture with a rubber spatula. Pulse again to mix ingredients.
Pour mixture into cake tin, cook uncovered in the middle of the oven or approximately 50 minutes (might be less if your oven is hotter) – test it by inserting a skewer through the centre and if it comes out clean, it’s cooked. If it needs more cooking, return to oven for 5 minutes. Once cooked, stand for 5 minutes in cake tin. Then turn out carefully on wire rack.
Caramel Sauce
Place sugar and butter in medium saucepan over a high heat. With a wooden spoon, stir in cream. Once butter has melted, bring the sauce to a boil, stirring constantly until it’s completely smooth.
Serve warm pudding with hot caramel sauce and a generous serving of Appleby Farm’s Salted Caramel ice cream – what better way to enjoy this pudding with caramel on caramel?!?
What’s your go-to comfort food?
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