Crumbles.....

... as in the puddings. We love crumbles here, and I was brought up on them as a cheap, filling pudding, using home grown fruits in season. This is what I do now. A friend recently told me that crumbles came about in WW2 in reaction to difficulty in obtaining eggs - rather than make a sponge pudding, it was just the flour and marge/butter and a small amount of sugar. I never knew that. Nowadays, people do all sorts of weird (I'd like to say and wonderful here, but I'm afraid it's not...........) things to their crumble mixes. They add coconut, muesli, oats, cereals, all sorts of unnecessary thing; you can't beat a good plain crumble. With good fruit, it needs no further addition or embellishment.
Take half fat to flour and rub it in and add a spoonful or two of sugar and mix. That's it. Simple. I use butter in mine, as I don't have margarine in the house, and it makes for a lovely crumble. Spoon over cooked fruit in a pie dish and into a hot oven until bubbling around the edges and golden brown all over. We like ours with anything - custard, cream, milk, fromage frais, whatever is available.
The very best bit is the bit that sticks to the serving spoon, which is the cook's perk while the water's running for the washing up lol

Whoopie pies

I believe these are being unleshed on Britain as we speak........... An American classic it seems, being introduced here by Harrods.

2.50 each. I shan't be hurrying to Harrods at that price! Especially for the lurid green one........

Pass the sones.........

Wartime chocolate pudding

This is from the Wartime Kitchen and Garden; the recipe was posted up on the Creative Living forum, and proved very popular. It was popular in our hosue too, where the small size of the portions was the only criticism lol. Well worth making; I used butter, though, as that's what I had. I very very rarely buy/use margarine.


Wartime Chocolate Pudding

2 oz margarine
1 oz sugar
1 cup grated carrot
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 cups flour
1 heaped tbsp cocoa
1 tsp bicarb
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
½ pint milk
A little vanilla essence

Cream the margarine with the sugar and stir in the grated carrot, syrup and the rest of the dry ingredients. Add milk and a few drops of vanilla essence. Mix to a fairly stiff consistency. Put into a greased basin and steam for 2 hours.