Puds

Gooey low-carb chocolate pudding

Posted by annauk1 on October 9, 2013
Posted in: chocolate, coconut oil, low-carb, Puds. 4 Comments

The older I get, the more difficult I’m finding it to lose weight, whereas years ago I could afford the odd slip-up (or three!) and still lose weight, now I find it’s nigh on impossible.  I really don’t want to live a life of severe restriction, I mean fair play to those that do and succeed, but it’s just not for me.

What is life without chocolate?

I have been trying however, to cut-down on ‘bad’ carbs, white flour, white rice and the like. But today a chocolate craving appeared out of the blue. I could have had a couple of squares of dark chocolate, but I wanted something comforting, warm and gooey.

Cue a recipe that a friend of mine, Jane, shared with me a few years ago. I altered it slightly by using coconut oil instead of butter and adding a couple of tablespoons of coconut milk to slacken the mixture slightly.

Jane’s Gooey Low-carb Chocolate Pudding
Serves 1.

30g ground almonds
30g Xylitol
30g coconut oil, melted
1 egg
pinch of baking powder
pinch of bicarbonate of soda
drop of vanilla extract
2 tbsp coconut milk
2 tbsp Cocoa.

Simply mix all the ingredients together and place in a coconut oil oiled ramekin.

Bake at 180 deg.C (Fan oven) for 15-20 mins.

Dig into the middle to find the molten, coconutty, chocolate centre and, above all, enjoy!

Paula Deen’s Praline French Toast Casserole

Posted by annauk1 on October 29, 2011
Posted in: American cookbooks, American recipes, Desserts, Paula Deen, Puds. 17 Comments

I don’t know if you know this fact about me….

I adore American recipes!

 American recipes in general, but American South recipes in particular.

Ergo, I love the ebullient, effusive Paula Deen, who, to me is the shining beacon of this form of cooking. I like her generous ways, her love of butter and cream and sugar and I just like to watch her and listen to her Southern drawl y’all……

So, of course, when I saw that Ms. Deen had a Southern cooking bible due to be published, I put it on pre-order months back. And can I say – it’s fantastic!
It’s comprehensive, detailed, interesting, with page after page of recipes that I’m dying to try!

Here’s the first one:

Praline French Toast Casserole

It’s a kind of sweet, creamy, nutty, deluxe bread and butter pudding, the praline topping really takes this gorgeous dessert into another league.

Stellar.

Butter, for the baking dish
1 loaf French bread, 13-16 oz.
8 large eggs
2 cups half and half (double cream)
1 cup whole milk
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
half tsp ground cinnamon
half tsp grated nutmeg
pinch of salt.

Praline topping:
2 sticks (8oz) butter at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tbsp light corn syrup
half tsp ground cinnamon
half tsp grated nutmeg.

1. Grease a 13×9 inch baking dish with butter (I left this step out and used a large, round ceramic deep pie dish instead)

2. Cut the bread into thick slices, place in dish overlapping. (I used small brioche rolls, about 10 of them)

3. In a large bowl combine the eggs (I only used three because I don’t like things too ‘eggy’) cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Beat with a whisk until blended, pour over the bread slices, cover with foil and refrigerate overnight (I didn’t do this as I didn’t have time, I don’t think it mattered as I used brioche, not crusty French bread)

4. Preheat oven to 350deg.F, Gas mark 4, 180deg.C or 160deg.C if you have a fan oven like me.

5. Prepare the praline topping by mixing the butter, brown sugar, pecans, corn (or golden) syrup, cinnamon and nutmeg and blend well. Spread topping over bread slices, bake until puffed and golden, about 45 minutes.

After this resounding sweet success I think I love Paula Deen even more.

Salted Caramel Sponge Pudding

Posted by annauk1 on June 30, 2011
Posted in: Nigella, Nigella iPhone app, Puds. 18 Comments

The inspiration for this salted caramel sponge pudding came from Nigella Lawson’s new recipe for salted caramel sauce which appears on her up-dated iPhone app.



Oooh, it’s really yummy, but be very careful when adding the salt, stick to the lower amount unless you’re really, really sure you need that extra salt.
even though mine was delicious, it was far too salty..(My own fault, I admit)

Nigella’s Salted Caramel Sauce


75g salted butter
50g soft light brown sugar
50g caster sugar
50g golden syrup
125ml double cream
0.5-1.5 tsp finest salt.

Melt the butter, both sugars and the golden syrup in a pan and let it simmer for 3 minutes. Stir it now and again. The sauce will slightly darken as it cooks.
Carefully add the cream, then half a tsp of salt and swirl around again.
Carefully taste it before adding any more salt (Watch you don’t burn yourself!)
Pour into a serving jug. And serve, maybe over a plain cake, or ice-cream, or how about making a caramel pudding?

do this by pouring some of the sauce to cover the bottom of an ovenproof pie dish, then make up a plain sponge by mixing together:

125g soft butter
125g caster sugar
125g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs.

(I used Nigella’s sponge recipe for the little lemon puddings, adapted slightly)
Spoon over the caramel sauce, don’t worry if it doesn’t cover the sauce perfectly, it will spread as it cooks.

Bake at 180deg.C. for about 20 minutes, then pour the rest of the caramel sauce over it as it comes out of the oven.
The sauce will be mostly absorbed, yum…sigh……heaven!

Let it cool slightly before digging in…..you don’t want to burn your mouth do you?

More recipes from Express.

Posted by annauk1 on December 19, 2007
Posted in: Baking, Nigella Express, Pie, Puds. 2 Comments

1. cocktail sausages – with honey and soy. Sticky, sweet, moreish. But in my eyes too messy for a party, unless the tap and sink happen to be in the living room or very near!

2. Butterfly cakes – memories from school cookery lessons with these. Nice and easy for an after tea treat.

3. Chicken, mushroom & bacon pie – Deliciously warming for cold days (easy too)


4. Holiday hot cake with egg nog cream – another comforting, warming treat, definitely to be made again.

That makes about 72 recipes I’ve made from ‘Nigella Express’, it’s catching ‘Feast’ up, that’s for sure!

Retro recipe for Vi’s challenge

Posted by annauk1 on December 5, 2007
Posted in: Puds, Violets' pantry. 3 Comments

My lovely friend Violets who runs ‘Violets pantry’ has challenged her members to cook and blog a favourite retro recipe.
I have been thinking long and hard about joining in, but my family retro recipes are mainly Cypriot ones, and I wanted to make something that would be familiar to more people than just me 🙂
Another friend of mine Norm has a great blog, which makes for interesting, humorous reading, and recently she blogged about an old favourite- semolina.
Well, that was all the push I needed, full of flu last night, and with a delicate tummy, I thought it would be an ideal ,tummy filling ,comforting, easily digested dish.
I cooked the semolina, milk and sugar in the microwave for 3 minutes, and it came out fabulously!
Topped my Norm’s hubby’s favourite golden syrup, Mmmmmmmmmmmm!
Thanks for the inspiration Norm, and Vi, thanks for the challenge!
Apologies for the awful photo, blame it on the flu! 🙂

More recipes from Express

Posted by annauk1 on October 19, 2007
Posted in: fish, Nigella Express, Puds, salad, stir-fry. 4 Comments

1. Black beans (from the tuna and black bean recipe)
I added corn, chilli and orange pepper to the beans, they were so delicious, I think black beans are my new favourite food!

2. Eton mess.
I used 0% yoghurt instead of cream to make this, and instead of crushed meringue, used mini marshmallows. It worked really well, fantastic in fact. I’ll definitely do this again.

3. Sesame peanut noodles
I think the amount of peanut butter in this recipe, could be cut right down without being detrimental to the finished dish. I used ready cooked noodles from a packet which made it even more express!

4. Lunchbox treats
I hunted out the rice malt syrup from Waitrose to make these, but had to use coco pops instead of rice crispies, as that’s all I had at home. Everyone loved these, but I found them incredibly moreish. In the end I was practically forcing them down the family’s throats so that I wouldn’t eat them all. I will definitely make them again, but not now that I’m counting points!

5. Scallops and chorizo
One word for this – fabulous!!
I am truly amazed how two ingredients can marry so well together and produce something so tasty!

Yorkshire pudding with ice-cream & golden syrup

Posted by annauk1 on August 28, 2007
Posted in: How To Eat, Nigella, Puds. 7 Comments


Whilst making our roast lamb dinner on Bank holiday Monday, I suddenly felt the need for yorkshire pudding, and believe me, it IS a need!
I used Nigella’s easy recipe from ‘How to Eat’, but as time was short, I didn’t leave the egg laden batter to rest for the allotted 15 minutes, and neither did I have the oven blastingly hot enough.
The finished pud, was too stodgy for me and way too eggy (it almost tasted like an omelette)
So, according to the ways of Nigella, I covered it with ice-cream and golden syrup…now, it was waaaaay more edible, I mean, what doesn’t improve after being covered in ice-cream and lots of tooth-achingly sweet golden syrup?

Where’s the recipe from? Nigella’s ‘How to Eat’
Marks out of ten? 2 (before being ice-creamed) 8 (after being ice-creamed)
Would I make it again? I need to find a different Yorkshire pudding recipe……