My posting on perfecting my apple pie recipe reminded me of the fact that my brother (P) reckons he has his malva pudding (a South African delicacy) down to fine art. “Practice makes perfect” were his very words to me on providing me with the recipe. For those that aren’t familiar with what it is, it’s basically a sponge pudding with a caramelised sauce poured over the top as soon as the sponge comes out the oven (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malva_Pudding).
I finally got round to making it the other weekend and decided to use golden caster sugar in the ‘sponge’ bit of the pudding and muscovado sugar in the sauce rather than the white granulated sugar I had been instructed by P to use throughout the recipe. The unrefined sugars seemed to be a better option to me because the final result sought is a toffee come caramelised finish along the lines of a sticky toffee pudding. And I’m pleased to say it came out a treat! Now, I haven’t the ‘white granualted sugar’ version to compare it with yet but I texted P to say how lovely it all was and gave my suggestions of amending the sugars. My ‘sister in law’, M, said I should have seen his reaction that I had had the cheek to suggest his pudding recipe wasn’t perfect already! He was appalled I’d changed it!
Hey P, practice makes perfect … 🙂