Hairy Bikers Sticky Ginger Pudding

Baked rather than steamed, Hairy Bikers sticky ginger pudding is a dark treacle sponge with stem ginger and red chilli, topped with hot toffee sauce. And in Great Curries, where it’s called sticky chilli ginger sponge, it makes 8 portions of about 690 calories in just over an hour.

They admit “we’ve even managed to get chilli into a pud!”, so 1½ long red chillies go in with 4 teaspoons of ground ginger. Then 7 balls of stem ginger are split between the batter and the sauce, so there’s ginger in every mouthful.

Let the melted treacle mixture cool for the full 5 minutes, because the milk and then the eggs go into it. So if it’s still too hot, the heat can start to cook the eggs before they’re mixed through.

Hairy Bikers Sticky Ginger Pudding

Author: Alex Saidani Cooking Method:Baking Cuisine:British Courses:Dessert

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 25 minutesCook time: 40 minutesRest time: minutesTotal time:1 hour 5 minutesServings:8 servingsCalories:690 kcal Best Season:Summer

Description

A dark, treacly baked sponge with grated stem ginger and red chilli through the crumb, finished with a quick sauce full of ginger matchsticks. Then serve it warm, with vanilla ice cream, crème fraîche or chilled single cream.

Ingredients

For the sponge

• 125g butter, plus extra for greasing
• 125g soft dark brown sugar
• 125g black treacle
• 125g golden syrup
• 275g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 4 stem ginger balls in syrup (about 75g), drained and coarsely grated
• 1½ long red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
• 2 large eggs
• 200ml semi-skimmed milk

For the toffee sauce

• 3 stem ginger balls in syrup (about 55g), drained
• 200ml double cream
• 100g dark brown soft sugar
• 75g butter

To serve

• vanilla ice cream, crème fraîche or chilled single cream

Instructions

1. Heat the oven: Preheat the oven to 180°C, 160°C fan, Gas 4. Then butter a 2-litre shallow ovenproof dish, and a lasagne dish is ideal.
2. Melt the treacle mix: Put the butter, sugar, treacle and syrup in a medium saucepan over a low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Then turn the heat up a little and simmer gently for a minute, stirring. And take it off the heat to cool for 5 minutes.
3. Mix the dry ingredients: Meanwhile, put the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ground ginger and allspice in a large heatproof bowl. Then add the stem ginger, patted dry and coarsely grated, and the chilli. And toss everything together lightly, then make a well in the centre.
4. Make the batter: Beat the eggs with a metal whisk until smooth. Then stir the milk gradually into the warm treacle mixture, followed by the eggs, stirring hard. Then pour it slowly into the flour, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, and whisk out any floury lumps. And it will still be pourable, which is right.
5. Bake: Pour the batter into the dish and bake in the centre of the oven for 35 to 40 minutes. And it’s ready when it’s well risen and a skewer in the centre comes out clean.
6. Make the toffee sauce: About 10 minutes before the sponge is ready, slice the 3 ginger balls thinly, then stack the slices and cut them into thin matchsticks. Then put them in a non-stick pan with the cream, sugar and butter over a low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. And bring it to a very gentle simmer for 30 seconds, stirring all the time.
7. Pour and serve: Take the pudding out of the oven and pour the hot sauce over the top, spreading the ginger across it with a spoon. Then serve it warm with ice cream, crème fraîche or single cream.

FAQs

How hot is it, and can I leave the chilli out?

The chillies are deseeded, which takes some of the heat out, though long red chillies still vary. So use just one if you’re cooking for children, or leave it out and the recipe still works.

Some people search for it as a chilli ginger cake, since it’s cut into squares from a dish. And it’s not their only hot ginger bake, since their British Classics ginger cake adds ½ tsp of cayenne.

How does the Great Curries version differ from the BBC one?

The quantities match, but the BBC version bakes in a larger 2½-litre dish and adds finely grated lime zest over the top. And BBC Food files it under their Best of British series, which also has a book, while Great Curries pitches it after a curry.

In Great Curries they suggest it after one of the lighter dishes, “such as a fish curry, on a cold winter’s night”. So with a heavy curry, a small square with crème fraîche is plenty.

How is it different from their sticky toffee pudding?

There are no dates here, and the sauce goes over the top once rather than being poked into holes. So the ginger matchsticks sit glossy on top rather than disappearing into the sponge.

Their sticky toffee pudding from British Classics folds 200g of dates into the sponge instead, then pours half the sauce into holes across the top. And it works out lower in calories, at about 560 a portion against roughly 690 here.

Can I make it ahead?

The sponge can be baked ahead, cooled, covered and kept in the fridge for up to 2 days. Then reheat it under foil at 160°C fan for 15 to 20 minutes, and make the sauce fresh, since it only takes a few minutes.

It’s best eaten warm, unlike their soft, syrupy parkin, which they say is even better a couple of days after it’s made. So bake that one days ahead, and this one on the day you serve it. Or for a cold ginger pudding you can finish the night before, their ginger cake trifle chills for at least an hour.

Can I make a smaller one?

Yes, halve everything and use one egg, with ¾ of a chilli and 2 stem ginger balls in the sponge. Then bake it in a dish of about 1 litre, and since it’s the same depth, start checking with a skewer at 30 minutes.

The sauce halves easily too, with 1½ ginger balls, 100ml of cream, 50g of sugar and about 40g of butter. And that halved pudding still gives 4 generous portions. Then any balls left in the jar suit their ginger biscuits, which need 3 chopped into the dough.