Puddings

I got up early when Roarke left for work today and have spent all day online, and updating websites. I've also been working on the search engine optimziation of the sites, and getting various blogs listed in the search engines. The boys have played well, and Mum kindly did the net curtains, thereby allowing me to get on with some work (fairly) guilt free.

However, I did find time today to browse for some new educational resources, and found a nice teaching aide for SEN science - it's apparently an online version of a CD ROM that has been sent out to UK schools and SEN schools.

I also added another recipe to our family cookbook today - for ages we've made a great "steamed" pudding in the microwave. Its the ideal quick pudding for hungry kids, or for unexpected guests who then are suprised to get pudding too!

I recently realised that I can still make it with gluten free ingredients, so here is the recipe:

50g/2oz butter
125g/4oz caster sugar
125g/4oz self raising gf flour
2 eggs, beaten
2-3 tbs milk
2 tbs golden syrup

The only difference between this and a steamed sponge pudding is that the syrup doesn't soak in quite so far. We get around that by pouring extra warmed syrup over the pudding as we serve it!

Spread the inside of a large microwave proof pudding basin with the golden syrup. Cream the fat and sugar until soft, then beat in the eggs. Carefully fold in the gf flour and then add enough milk to make a smooth, soft dropping consistency. As an aside, I've done with with Dove's GF plain flour and added baking powder, and it still rises exactly the same. Spoon the mixture into the bowl on top of the syrup, then cook on High for 4-4 1/2minutes (based on a 650 watt oven). There may be a few damp patches on the surface but these disappear quickly - use the old skewer cake test to make sure it is cooked. Leave to stand for a few minutes before turning out. Then impress everyone!