33: Fathers Day dinner @ Pheebs & Pat's Sultana Pudding Recipe

Really it was just an excuse for a bit of a get-together and catch up on each others news,  and to try some new (and old) recipes. 

Mitch and Lins were on nibbles, Pheebs and Mandy (& Joe on the barbie) did the meat & salads, and I was designated dessert.  Pheebs put in the request for one of her Dad's favourites (it being Fathers Day) so the choice was obvious - Mums Sultana Pudding!  Peter may not be a big sweets eater, but he has been known to eat bucket loads of this.

After a slight panic about not having the recipe at Marrickville (this is normally a 'farm' recipe), I found it filed under 'Caramel Pudding' & written in my high-school writing & pre-metric measurements - yikes I had to google metric conversions before I could get this baby underway...

Pat's Sultana Pudding
Syrup                                    
3/4 cup brown sugar                
1 1/2 cups water                     
60 gms butter 

Pudding Batter                       
60 gms butter                                            
1/4 cup brown sugar                                            
1 egg  
vanilla      
1/2 cup sultanas                           
1 1/4 cups SR Flour 

*  Put all the ingredients for the syrup in a saucepan and bring to the boil for 5 mins or so
*  Cream butter and brown sugar, add egg and vanilla.  
*  Fold in sultanas and sifted flour.  
*  Mix well to a fairly dry batter - add a little milk if it seems too dry (you want it to stay in 'clumps' when you drop it into the hot syrup, rather than a spreading consistency)
*  Pour the boiling syrup into a shallow baking dish.  Drop batter in spoon-fulls into the hot syrup.
*  Bake for about 35 mins at about 180- 200 degrees.

Just out of the oven

This is a triple quantity and baked in a large corningware baking dish - I don't think I have ever made just a single quantity - just wouldn't go far enough, and the recipe seems to handle it OK (unlike some cake recipes where the texture goes weird).  What you're looking to achieve is runny caramel sauce under a nice sultana-ery cake, with a crisp top. 

It seemed to go down quite well...
In the unlikely event that there is some left over for the next day, you'll usually find that the sauce is absorbed by the cake- but it's still good.

I also made a chocolate / coffee self saucing pudding from Donna Hay's 'Seasons' cookbook, using a pudding bowl instead of baking it in a frying pan.  I had to make a few other variations because of my lack of planning, so left out the almond meal from the pudding batter.  I also didn't have instant coffee, so made strong 'plunger' coffee and added a slurp to the batter, and used the rest instead of water in the syrup - probably the reason why the syrup is so dark!  Tasted good though!

For the non-dried fruit eating member of the family

And to finish off, Lindsay had spent the afternoon making salted caramel macarons - I am full of admiration for her patience! 

Lindsey's salted caramel macarons