Buttermilk pudding with berry sauce
Food memories
I compiled my first ‘official’ cookbook under my own name, in 2008, called Food from the heart. Actually, it was first published in Afrikaans, with the title Onthoukos, by Lapa Publishers. Roughly translated you can call it ‘food from our memories’ or ‘food we remember’. While writing the book, we asked people what they would ask their moms to prepare, if they could visit for a Sunday lunch again – those special meals we remember from our childhood. We all have one.
A pudding recipe to share
One of the recipes from the book, is a very simple, yet special pudding. It really just requires you to mix, pour and bake. I once tasted this at a family member, Marietjie Pauw-Conradie’s house. She got the recipe from her cousin Maria Kroes, who in turn, wrote down the recipe from her mom, Mariëtta Heese’s recipe book. The process of passing on this delicious recipe continues. My contribution to this buttermilk pudding is an easy and yummy berry sauce – lip-smackingly good!
Warm and comforting
The buttermilk gives the pudding a soft, velvety texture and the berry sauce is the perfect balance to the almost sweet-tart flavour of the pudding. Make this soon to spoil family and friends and to keep sharing the memories through this recipe. Who knows, maybe this becomes your children’s to-pass-on-through-the-generations pudding.
Serves 4 – 6
100 ml (100 g) butter
200 ml (160 g) sugar
3 extra large eggs
250 ml (140 g) cake flour
10 ml (2 tsp) baking powder
5 ml (1 tsp) vanilla essence
2 ml salt
1 litre (4 cups) buttermilk
Berry sauce
250 g frozen blueberries, thawed
75 ml (5 tbsp) castor sugar
5 ml (1 tsp) finely grated lemon rind
15-30 ml (1-2 tbsp) lemon juice or to taste
2. Beat together the butter, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy. Beat in the rest of the ingredients to form a smooth batter.
3. Spoon into the greased dish and bake for 45 minutes or until set and light brown on top. If the pudding becomes too dark before it is set, cover with foil for the last part of the cooking time.
4. Berry sauce: Meanwhile, blend all the ingredients together with a stick blender, until smooth. Pour into a small saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat, while stirring continuously.
5. Serve the berry sauce hot or at room temperature with the hot pudding. Or enjoy the pudding with seasonal fruit and a drizzle of runny honey. Citrus or gooseberries will also be delicious with the dessert.