Dr Mobeus
Golden Syrup Sponge Pudding
Golden syrup sponge is the pudding of school dinners and Sunday teatimes done properly. The whole thing is a plain four-ingredient sponge mixture poured over a slick of golden syrup, which fizzes up through the crumb while it steams and glazes the pudding from underneath. Served warm it barely needs custard, but it takes it gracefully all the same. The entire pudding costs about 85p and feeds six, and it steams away happily on the hob while dinner is eaten, which is exactly how it earned its place in the weekly rotation of every household that ever owned a pudding basin.
Golden Syrup Sponge Pudding
Ingredients
Method
- Butter a 1.2 litre pudding basin and pour 2 tablespoons of the golden syrup into the bottom.
- Beat the margarine and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a spoon of the flour with each to stop the mixture splitting.
- Fold in the remaining flour and baking powder along with the milk, until you have a soft dropping consistency. Spoon the mixture carefully over the syrup in the basin.
- Level the top, put a pleated circle of baking paper and a sheet of foil over the basin and tie them down with string, then lower it into a pan of simmering water so the water comes halfway up the sides.
- Steam for 1 hour 45 minutes, topping up the pan with boiling water now and then. A skewer pushed through the foil should come out clean.
- Rest for 5 minutes, run a knife around the edge and turn the pudding out onto a warm plate so the syrup runs down the sides. Pour over a little warmed extra golden syrup and serve.
Tips and Variations
Put an upturned saucer in the pan under the basin so it never sits over the direct heat. Margarine keeps the crumb softer than butter if you have both. A pressure cooker steams it in 35 minutes. Leftover sponge reheats in 30 seconds in the microwave with a spoon of syrup poured over and comes back almost as good as new.
