The mother of all essential desserts

[Flay]

Am51, this looks delicious! No, I've never seen this but might try it out seeing as we have plenty of leftover bread in our household. Over here, this would be considered a bread pudding (pudding here means just that, it's not a generic term for dessert.) Bread puddings are dead easy and quite good, though the calorie count can be quite high. One of my favorites comes from a little cookbook found in a charity shop for fifty cents. It's Clement Freud's "Bread and Butter Pudding" in the "Aldeburgh Celebration Cookbook" published in 1997 by the WI in Aldeburgh to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Aldeburgh Festival.

Marthe, Clement Freud was a really iconic figure.

Here he is promoting dog food - a series of amusing adverts, him po-faced, with his bloodhound Henry. Wonderful memories!

My personal favourite pudding is a syrup sponge, with just a hint of ginger, poured over with custard (or perhaps with vanilla ice cream). Delicious!

[gurnemanz]

PS2 Can't believe how this thread has grown in a few hours. Some correlation between puddings and classical music?

Dame Nellie comes to mind

http://www.zencancook.com/2010/09/peche-melba/

[marthe]

Marthe, Clement Freud was a really iconic figure.

Here he is promoting dog food - a series of amusing adverts, him po-faced, with his bloodhound Henry. Wonderful memories!

My personal favourite pudding is a syrup sponge, with just a hint of ginger, poured over with custard (or perhaps with vanilla ice cream). Delicious!

Flay, thank you for that clip of CF and his dog. I remember his wit from a lunchtime radio game show on R4 back in the 70s..."Just a Minute" perhaps. The recipe in the Aldeburgh Cookbook is written in just that sort of dead-pan manner!

[Mary Chambers]

In fact it's not a dessert, any more than lardy cake is! Has anyone had that? Probably around 5,000 cals per portion! But we're getting off topic.

Lardy cake! Shades of Devizes! Heaven, but must be one of the unhealthiest foods on earth.

And now someone's mentioned treacle tart....I'm going to have to stop reading this thread. (My mother insisted on calling it syrup tart, because she said treacle was the black stuff, as in treacle toffee.)

[Mary Chambers]

Can't believe how this thread has grown in a few hours. Some correlation between puddings and classical music?

Stephen Hough lists puddings among his interests, along with art, hats and theology.

[Flay]

I must tell you about a friend's unfortunate pudding spoon-erism. In a restaurant she ordered a portion of "stiffy cocky pudding"

[teamsaint]

Lardy cake! Shades of Devizes! Heaven, but must be one of the unhealthiest foods on earth.

And now someone's mentioned treacle tart....I'm going to have to stop reading this thread. (My mother insisted on calling it syrup tart, because she said treacle was the black stuff, as in treacle toffee.)

Kind of went off treacle tart after spending some night shifts packing them in boxes at Mr Kipling in Eastleigh.

Could manage one now, though! (well not a whole big one, obviously !)

[cloughie]

I must tell you about a friend's unfortunate pudding spoon-erism. In a restaurant she ordered a portion of "stiffy cocky pudding"

I'd say that was a serving spoonerism.

[EdgeleyRob]

I must tell you about a friend's unfortunate pudding spoon-erism. In a restaurant she ordered a portion of "stiffy cocky pudding"

Spotted dick anyone ?

[amateur51]

I must tell you about a friend's unfortunate pudding spoon-erism. In a restaurant she ordered a portion of "stiffy cocky pudding"

[cloughie]

Kind of went off treacle tart after spending some night shifts packing them in boxes at Mr Kipling in Eastleigh.

Could manage one now, though! (well not a whole big one, obviously !)

Treacle tart is, I think, enhanced by a little lemon juice either in the mixture or added in serving, but the blob of clotted cream is a must.

[vinteuil]

Lardy cake! Shades of Devizes! Heaven, but must be one of the unhealthiest foods on earth.

... yes! The Devizes ones were the best!! Amazing I remained so slim

[gurnemanz]

Treacle tart is, I think, enhanced by a little lemon juice either in the mixture or added in serving, but the blob of clotted cream is a must.

Treacle tart was one of my favourites, as cooked regularly my mother in the 50s. Also worth a mention are her bread pudding and lemon meringue pie.

[Lateralthinking1]

The best dessert I ever had was in 1979 at the Polurrian Hotel, Cornwall as it used to be. It was very simple - a banana split served on a flattish dish with two bananas, each divided down the middle. In the gaps there was Cornish clotted cream, chocolate sauce and a sprinkling of almonds while between them was fresh fruit, Cornish ice cream and more Cornish clotted cream. Over the top of it all were morello cherries which must have one of the best tastes it is possible to find.

I am also very partial to raspberries in raspberry jelly, tinned mandarin segments and hot apple crumble with custard.

(Who started this nonsense?)

[amateur51]

The best dessert I ever had was in 1979 at the Polurrian Hotel, Cornwall as it used to be. It was very simple - a banana split served on a flattish dish with two bananas, each divided down the middle. In the gaps there was Cornish clotted cream, chocolate sauce and a sprinkling of almonds while between them was fresh fruit, Cornish ice cream and more Cornish clotted cream. Over the top of it all were morello cherries which must have one of the best tastes it is possible to find.

This sounds suspiciously like a pre-Thatcher banana split, Lats