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| Three Ways House Hotel, Home of The Pudding Club |
The following recipes and their introductions are excerpted from The Pudding Club Book: 100 Luscious Recipes from the World-Famous Pudding Club by Chris Kelly (foreword), Keith Turner, Jean Turner and Annette Balfour Lynn.
- Sticky Toffee and Date Pudding
- Very Chocolate Pudding
- Spotted Dog
- Syrup Sponge
- Lord Randall’s Pudding
- Oriental Ginger Pudding
Sticky Toffee and Date Pudding
This recipe is provided courtesy of
Three Ways House Hotel, home of The Pudding Club, in Mickleton, England. The recipe—as well as the Butterscotch Sauce recipe below—was transcribed from a painted mural on the wall of the hotel’s Sticky Toffee and Date room, one of seven named after popular puddings. It has been converted to measurements and instructions that are more familiar to those preparing the dessert in the U.S.
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- 1 stick softened butter
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 3/4 c. dark brown sugar
- 1 cup self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup dates, chopped
- 1 tsp instant coffee mixed with 2 tbsp water
- 1 cup boiling water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the beaten egg a little at a time. If it curdles, add some of the flour. Sift the flour and soda and fold into the creamed mixture. Add the dates, coffee and creamed mixture. Mix thoroughly. It will be thin batter. Pour into an 8 in. non-stick cake pan sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for about 1½ hours (it takes a good bit of time because of the thin batter). Turn out and serve with butterscotch sauce.
| Watch Editor-in-Chief Sandy Klim prepare Sticky Toffee and Date Pudding Part One Part Two |
Butterscotch Sauce
- 1/2 stick butter
- 2/3 cup Demerara sugar (or raw sugar)
- 1 tbsp cane syrup (or corn syrup)
- 2/3 cup evaporated milk (or whipping cream)
Melt the butter, then add the sugar and syrup and stir till dissolved. Pour in the milk (turn up heat a bit) and beat until boiling. Boil about two minutes. Serve hot with sticky toffee and date pudding. Garnish with mint if desired.
Tip: Sauce thickens as it cools. Double the recipe if you like lots of sauce with your pudding.
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Chocolate chips are added to the basin to give this pudding a soft chocolate topping, and to make its chocolate content even greater.
- 4 oz. butter
- 4 oz. caster sugar
- 4 oz. self-raising flour
- 1 oz. cocoa powder
- 2 eggs
- 2 oz. chocolate chips
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and cocoa together and add with the egg, a little at a time, to the creamed mixture, beating well between each addition. Finally, stir in half the chocolate chips. Place a covering of the remaining chocolate chips over the base of a greased 2-pint pudding basin before adding the mixture. Steam for 1½-2 hours. Turn out and serve with, inevitably, a chocolate sauce. Custard is also wonderful with this pudding. Serves 4-6.
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- 8 oz. self-raising flour
- a pinch of salt
- 4 oz. shredded suet
- 1 oz. sugar
- 8 oz. currants or raisins, soaked in brandy
- ¼ pint cold water
Grease a 2-pint pudding basin. Sieve together the flour and salt, then add the shredded suet, sugar and dried fruit. Mix these ingredients with enough water to make a firm dough. Cover securely and steam for 2 hours. Turn the pudding out onto a hot dish and serve with custard. Serves 4-6.
Tip: If you want to make a spotted dog in the traditional shape, form the mixture into a cylinder of about 8 in. long, and roll in a pudding cloth. Boil for 2 hours.
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No pudding engenders more rivalry between members of The Pudding Club, or more return visits for seconds, than this sponge pudding soaked with syrup.
- 4 oz. butter
- 4 oz. caster sugar
- 4 oz. self-raising flour
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 tbsp. golden syrup
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| Three Ways House Hotel, Home of The Pudding Club |
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and add this to the creamed mixture along with the egg, a little at a time, beating well. Put the golden syrup in the base of a buttered 2-pint pudding basin, and pour the sponge mixture carefully over the syrup. Cover securely and steam for 1½-2 hours. Turn out and serve with Syrup Sauce (recipe below) and custard. Serves 4-6.
Tip: Always rinse the tablespoon in hot water and warm the syrup slightly by standing the open can in hot water. This makes the syrup easier to get off the spoon.
Syrup Sauce
- 1 dessert spoon corn flour
- 5 oz. water
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- juice of ½ lemon
Mix the corn flour with a little of the water, then add all the other ingredients. Heat in a small pan, stirring all the time until the sauce thickens. Serve hot.
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The famous ballad recording Lord Randall’s caddish behaviour, and his ensuing death at the hands of one of his family, seems to have no connection with this pudding. Pudding Club members would doubt that such a rotter could be a pudding lover.
- 5 oz. plain flour
- 1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda
- 5 oz. butter
- 4 oz. soft brown sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- 6 fl. oz. milk
- 5 oz. dried apricots, chopped
- 5 oz. thick dark marmalade
Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda together. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the beaten eggs, milk, flour and apricots separately to the butter mixture. Beat vigorously and then finally stir in the marmalade. Turn the mixture into a greased 2-pint pudding basin and cover securely. Steam for 1½-2 hours. Turn out and serve with custard. Serves 4-6.
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Like the Sticky Toffee and Date Pudding above, this recipe was transcribed from a painted mural on the wall of the Three Ways House Hotel’s Oriental Ginger room.
- 6 oz. self-raising flour
- a pinch of salt
- 1½ heaped tsp ground ginger
- 3 oz. shredded suet
- 1½ oz. soft brown sugar
- 1½ oz. preserved stem ginger, drained and chopped
- 3 tbsp golden syrup, warmed
- 1 egg, beaten
Sieve together the flour, salt and ground ginger. Mix with the suet, sugar and chopped stem ginger. Add the warmed syrup and the egg, and mix well. Transfer to a greased 2-pint pudding basin, cover securely and steam for 1½ hours. Turn out on a warmed dish and serve with extra syrup and custard.
For more recipes, visit The Pudding Club’s website.