Brown bread, walnut and golden syrup steamed pudding

 For a recent dinner party I received a special request to make a golden syrup steamed pudding. I found this Ray McVinnie recipe after a search on the Cuisine website. It is just the ticket to cheer you up on a cold winters night. Trust me, they are divine! So easy to make if you have a kitchen whizz, some stale brown bread and a cup of walnuts on hand.
  As suggested, I used my (almost) redundant electric fry pan. (You can also use a bamboo dumpling steamer for the job). Using the fry pan, I had to keep a close eye on the water level and temperature in the pan. And I cooked my puddings a little longer than his 45 minutes. When checking with a skewer they were not quite done so I replaced the foil tightly and cooked them for about 10-15 minutes until I got that 'doneness'. (Is there such a word?).
  This recipe is fine for one large pudding. Steam for about 1 1/2 hours in a well covered bowl in a large saucepan with enough water to come 3/4 of the way up the bowl.
Making individual ones is a bit more of a fiddle. But when you serve these hot little gems onto a plate, they look gorgeous with all that lovely golden syrup ooooooozing over them. And they smell wonderful!
  I made the Chantilly cream to accompany my puddings, and in spite of serving six people I had a large bowl of cream left over. The good news is, the cream seems to go with anything remotely like a dessert!! Picture a banana smeared with Chantilly cream, so simple, and so lovely as a morning tea treat. Be great on a scone with raspberry jam too. Nothing gets wasted in this house!
 You can make the puddings beforehand. Leave the foil on the puddings and when required place them in a roasting dish with hot water (about half way up) and heat them in the oven for about 20 minutes on 160C.
Please try this recipe, it will take you back and remind you of your childhood and family winter puddings.

This was a pudding left over, and reheated the syrup has soaked in a bit

Ready to dig in, mmmmmmm......

Brown bread, walnuts and golden syrup steamed pudding – Ray McVinnie –Cuisine 
1 cup golden syrup
180g butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 cup coarsely chopped New Zealand walnut pieces
1 ½  cups fresh brown breadcrumbs, made by blitzing good-quality day-old brown sourdough in a food processor
175ml milk

Butter 6 x 250ml-capacity bowls or tea cups. Divide the golden syrup evenly among the bowls. Set aside.

Beat the butter and brown sugar together until pale and creamy. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Stir the zest, flour, baking powder, walnuts, breadcrumbs and milk into the butter mix. Spoon this mixture evenly into the bowls, on top of the golden syrup.

Cover each bowl tightly with a double layer of foil then place in a large steamer or side by side in a large frying pan with a lid.

Fill the frying pan with hot water until it comes three-quarters of the way up the sides of the bowls. Cover and bring to the boil then simmer for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of a pudding comes out clean.

Remove the puddings from the steamer then unmould on to serving plates. Serve with Chantilly cream.

Chantilly cream
200ml cream
150g mascarpone
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put the cream, mascarpone, sugar and vanilla in a bowl then beat until the mixture holds soft peaks. Serve with the puddings.