Eve's pudding
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 30 mins to 1 hour
- Serve
- Serves 4
- Dietary
- Nut-freeVegetarian
Eve's pudding is a deliciously comforting combination of stewed apples and sponge. Serve with plenty of custard or cream.
Ingredients
For the filling
- 2 large cooking apples (about 500g/1lb2oz in total)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 20g/¾oz butter
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
For the topping
- 75g/3oz butter, softened
- 100g/3½oz caster sugar
- 100g/3½oz self-raising flour
- 2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 tbsp boiling water
To serve
- cream or custard
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4.
Peel, core and roughly chop the apples. Add the apples to a saucepan with the lemon juice and 2 tablespoons water. Stir, cover and cook briskly for 5 minutes until the apples are soft.
Add the butter and caster sugar and stir. Then transfer to a 900ml/1½ pint capacity baking dish, about 5cm/2in deep. Leave to cool while you prepare the topping.
For the topping, cream together the butter and caster sugar until fluffy and light.
Fold the flour and egg in alternate spoonfuls until fully incorporated, being careful to keep folding rather than stirring energetically – this will keep the air in the mixture. Add a spoonful of boiling water and fold in.
Spoon the sponge mixture over the apples.
Bake for 30–35 minutes or until the topping is puffy and golden. Serve with cream or custard.
Recipe tips
This recipe uses cooking apples (such as Bramley apples) as they go really soft when cooked and their tart flavour balances the sweet sponge topping. You can use eating apples too, but pick sharper varieties and be aware that they won't break down in the same way. In step 2 of the recipe, it will take longer for the apples to soften and they'll never get as soft as cooking apples.
