Suddenly its cold and winter puddings serve two purposes, the heat of the oven helps to warm the house and puddings are a way to my man's heart. Oh - and they are also fantastic with desert wines. These were both fantastic with the Isabel Estate Noble Sauvage 2002.

This month's recipes include

School Girl Chocolate Pudding
I call this pudding 'School Girl Chocolate Pudding' because it is in my handwritten recipe book from Form 2 cooking classes. I would have been 11 or 12 at the time. There are a couple of slight modifications – like milo and macadamia nuts – otherwise it is just as was back then.

You will need

First of all combine the sugar and water in a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
While the syrup is simmering, cream the butter, brown sugar and vanilla till smooth.
Add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk into the creamed sugar and butter mix to make a batter-like mixture.
Pour the syrup into a greased pie dish, then drop the batter into the syrup in tablespoonful lots.
Bake at 200 degrees C for 15 to 20 minutes.

This makes four nicely sized individual servings. I have white ribbed porcelain, 85mm-wide (3 1/2 inch) round Apilco ramekins that hold 5-ounces and are, in my opinion, the perfect dish for single servings. Divide the syrup equally among the ramekins, then distribute the spoonfuls of batter equally.

This is rather nice simply served with whipped cream.

Rick Stein Inspired Bread and Butter Pudding
Watching homely chef Rick Stein on his Food Heroes television program the other night inspired this version of bread and butter pudding. My quantities are for my Temuka Stoneware Square Baker, which measures 17.5cm (7 inches) across the square, and serves two nicely or three at a pinch.

You will need

Measure out the raisins in a cup, add apricot brandy liqueur to cover and leave to plump up for at least half an hour. Drain the raisins and reserve the liquid.
Butter the bread and remove the crusts. Cut the bread diagonally one way, then diagonally the other way to create four triangles from each slice of bread.
Grease the bottom of the baking dish with butter. Line the bottle of the dish with 7 or 8 of the bread triangles, butter side up.
Sprinkle over the drained raisins.
Cover with the remaining bread, butter side up.
Beat the egg and to it add the cream, milk, vanilla essence and castor sugar and stir lightly to combine.
Pour the egg liquid over the bread, slowly, moving the pouring vessel back and forth so there is mixture covering every slice.
Leave to sit for about half an hour.
Put into an oven to bake at 160 degrees C for 45 minutes.
Near the end of the baking time heat the apricot jam and the preserved apricot brandy liqueur in a small saucepan and cook quickly for about 4-5 minutes to reduce and thicken into a syrup.
When pudding has baked, remove it from the oven.
Sieve the icing sugar over the top of the bread pudding and place under a grill to caramelise the icing sugar - watch carefully, you do not want to blacken the pudding.
Serve with the apricot brandy sauce drizzled over the top.

This tastes even more yum the next day, if there are any left overs you will be able to taste and get my drift.

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Sue Courtney's recipes are all original creations unless otherwise stated. Recipes are inspired by the season and by the wine matches.

Kia pai te kai

© Sue Courtney
June 2004