Apple Caramel Pudding, self saucing

This Self Saucing Apple Caramel Pudding is like an apple pie and a sticky date pudding all rolled into one. It’s the sort of special dessert you can make when its cold or when you want to spoil someone. Stir it together and bake in next to no time at all. What you get is fluffy sponge and a hot caramel sauce that melts into ice cream or cream. MMMM….

Self Saucing Puddings make dessert easy

I don’t really need many excuses to make dessert but you might. This Self Saucing Apple Caramel Pudding is easy to make if you are looking for an excuse. I have made this 5 times now just to cover every angle of getting it just right including a gluten free version.

I thought that it might be a good Father’s Day surprise or family dessert. September is Father’s day here in Australia and New Zealand though I am just not sure why we have to have Fathers and Mothers Days at different times of the year to everyone else.  Just one of those inexplicable things.

Making Dessert with Dad

My Dad was always keen on this type of dessert. For a start, apple and caramel are meant to be together. I have a big weakness for apple desserts just like my Dad did. He’s been gone a while now but every so often and on Father’s Day there’s time to reflect. Today I reflected…

My Dad was a fixin’ man. He just had it in his blood. If ever you needed mending and fixing or any kind of drilling, there he was tool kit and drill handy. Sometimes Dad’s teach you the tricks of the trade but I can’t say that I stood there watching him fix things, no, him fixing things meant I could do something else. If you have a handyman on tap no need to spend precious time watching, right?

Seems I could have watched just a smidgen to make life simpler later on. Who knew?

Today I decided to attempt a simple enough task.  A towel rail on the back of a door. I had full confidence this would be a success because..why not. Easy right?

Yeah OK.

Some problems arose.

How do you get those nasty drill bits out of the drill?  I turned, I switched, I took a break and came back and still I couldn’t take it out. I thought about it and looked again before googling. “How do you take a drill bit out of a drill”. It came up before I finished the sentence and that gave me a sense of relief that I wasn’t the only person too stupid to be able to get a damn drill bit out.

Hmm so others before me had failed too.

I would conquer this drill. After watching several how to videos, ( why do people take so long to get to the point of their video?) my drill still wouldn’t behave. So, I put it in my handbag and took it to Bunnings. I call that woman power.

I asked the skinny guy on the Trade desk to help me.  Due to his physique, I quickly began to regret not going to the tool section, then before I even had time to adjust my attitude he had it done. He laughed and made a joke about his skinny arms before saying I just had to turn it harder.

Life’s funny like that.

My Dad isn’t here, so I am offering this to your Dad ( husband, partner) and I know they will love the Self Saucing Apple Caramel Pudding. It’s much simpler than drilling or mending or handymaning, so give it a go.

Helpful hints to make your pudding fantastic

• I’ve made this with fresh apples, that have been cooked but you could use canned if you like.
• You could use other fruit too. Try peaches or plumbs. Use a tart fruit that will work well with caramel
• Make sure you peel the apples (or other fruit). If the skin is left on it will leave tough bits when you dig into the luscious apple base.
• I use a microwave to cook the apples (or other fruit) for this dish. If you don’t want to do this you could cook them in a pot with 1/4 cup
• of water till tender.
• Always cook or partially cook fruit first. They will not have time to cook through before the cake is cooked and ready.
• Check the measurements of my dish. You will need a dish that allows for the sponge to rise. If the dishes’ measurements are wider than the (10 in x10 in ) 25 cm x 25 cm square your sponge will be very thin. If this is ok by you then go ahead
• A bit of moisture remaining on the apples or other fruit is preferable, it adds to the caramel sauce.
• The cornflour in the sauce mixture gathers the juices from the fruit to make to take up juices from fresh fruit.
• You may find it easier to put your baking dish onto a tray to transfer it to the oven once you add the boiling water that makes the caramel sauce
• If you can’t get golden syrup you can use treacle or just skip this ingredient altogether.

1. Peel and slice the apple. Mix it with cinnamon
2. Cook the apples till tender. I put the in the microwave in the same dish as I will bake the self saucing pudding.

These pictures show the making of the gluten free version of the pudding. Follow the steps for the regular version just the same way.

1. You will see all the ingredients gathered together. Flour, melted butter, sugar, egg, baking powder and milk.
2. Mix the dry ingrednts for the sponge together
3. Mix the wet ingredients including the melted butter
4. and 5. Mix all of the ingredients wet and dry until just combined

6. Spread evenly over the cooled apples

1. Mix the dry ingredients for the Sauce- cornflour, sugar
2. Spread over the pudding batter
3. Mix the boiling water and the golden syrup and pour over the batter before baking.

If you like this you will definitely love Chocolate Caramel Raspberry Self Saucing Pudding

Tania Cusack

Self Saucing Apple Caramel Pudding

4.50 from 4 votes

This is an easy dessert. My dish is 25 x25 x6 cm ( 10 in 10 in x 21/2 in). Anything else that is smaller and deeper may not work as well. A pyrex glass baker in round or square is also good.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Servings: 6

Course: Dessert

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

Fruit base

• 550 gm apples 3 whole green cooking apples
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Sponge

• 190 gm flour plain,1 1/4 cups
• 100 gm brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 whole Egg large 70 gm
• 200 ml milk any kind
• 100 gm butter melted

Caramel Sauce

• 150 gm brown sugar extra, 3/4 cup
• 20 gm cornflour 2 Tablespoons / maize flour
• 350 ml boiling water 1 1/2 cups
• 80 gm golden syrup 4 Tablespoons

Method

 

Fruit base

1. Set the oven temperature to 180 C / 350 F ready to bake this pudding. Make sure the oven rack is set in the middle of the oven.
2. Grease the sides of a 10 x 10 x 3 inch (25 x25x 6 cm) baking dish. NOTE: This baking dish can be used to cook the apples in the microwave too if you would like to save on washing up as I have done.
3. Peel and slice the apples (or other fruit) and put into an oven proof dish, as above I use the same dish to microwave and bake. (See below for variations) Toss the apples with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Put into a microwave uncovered for 5 minutes (1100watts) . They will be just tender. Set aside to cool a little.
4. **If your microwave is small or you are making your pudding in a metal baker then use a flatish bowl to cook the fruit and then transfer to your baker (to cook your pudding) **or you prefer to cook the fruit on the stove use a medium pot and cook them in with 1/4 cup (60 ml) of water till very slowly stiring occasionally till tender.

The sponge

1. Melt 100 gm of butter set aside.
2. In another bowl mix the egg and milk.
3. In a medium bowl add the flour, baking powder and brown sugar and mix well with a whisk till there are no lumps. (you can also run your fingers through this to get rid of any lumps).
4. Now, add the milk / egg mixture to the flour and then the melted butter on top and mix with a whisk till smooth. The batter will be thickish, so pour over the cooled apples and spread flat with a palette knife or spoon

Caramel Sauce

1. Take a small bowl and mix the extra brown sugar and cornflour till well combined. Then sprinkle this over the batter and apples in the baking dish in an even layer right to the corners. Put the dish onto a tray to make it easier to transfer to the oven once it has water in it
2. Boil the jug and once boiled pour the water into a measuring jug up to exactly 350 ml. Pour the golden syrup into the water and stir to dissolve. Then pour this over the batter covered with the sugar sprinkles in the baking dish.
3. Then transfer the whole dish on its tray to the middle rack of your preheated oven. the sauce will end up on the bottom!!
4. Bake for 30- 40 minutes or until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Don't dig in too deep when testing just the top layer. ( underneath the sponge there's caramel and apple). The caramel sauce will be bubbling on the sides of the dish.
5. It is best served as soon as possible as the caramel sauce starts to soak in sponge. This is still perfectly fine (NO, still amazing), and you can make the sponge ahead of when you need it and rewarm BUT I love it hot with ice cream straight from the oven.

Notes

• I use a microwave to cook the apples for this dish. If you don’t want to do this you could cook them in a pot with 1/4 cup of water till tender. A bit of moisture remaining on the apples is preferable, it adds to the caramel sauce.

Gluten Free version sponge mix

200 gm gluten free flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

100 gm brown sugar

100 gm melted butter

200 ml milk

1 egg

Follow the instructions above