There is a great combination of textures in these very light puddings, which are served with a delicious toffee sauce. Recipe taken from The Vegetarian Society’s book ’Vegetarian Food for Friends’ (HarperCollins Publishers 1998).
Preparation Notes
*Can be vegan.
Ingredients
For the topping
- 50g light muscovado sugar
- 50g pecan nuts chopped
- 100g dried apricots chopped
- A few extra pecans chopped and used for garnish
- 25g butter or margarine* to grease the ramekins
For the almond sponge base
- 75g butter or vegan margarine*
- maple syrup or soft brown sugar
- 1 free-range egg or 1 tbsp soya flour mixed with 2 tbsp water*
- 75g ground almonds
- 25g soya flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- A few drops vanilla extract
For the toffee sauce
- 200g light muscovado sugar
- 90g double cream or soya cream*
- 100g unsalted butter or vegan margarine*
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 25g pecan nuts
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.
- To make the topping, mix all the sugar, chopped pecans and dried apricots together. Divide equally between 4 well-greased ramekins.
- Cream the butter or margarine* for the base with the maple syrup or sugar. Add the egg or soya flour paste and mix well. Stir in the almonds, soya flour, baking powder and vanilla essence.
- Spoon the mixture into the ramekins, place on a baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes.
- Make the sauce: put the sugar in a saucepan and use a wooden spoon to crush any lumps. Add the cream and butter (or soya cream* and vegan margarine*) and stir together over a gentle heat until the butter has melted. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes until toffee-coloured. Remove from the heat, then stir in the vanilla essence and chopped pecans.
- Turn each pudding out onto a serving plate. Decorate with pecan halves. Spoon a little toffee sauce around the puddings and serve immediately.
