Take a Trip Down Memory Lane for 5 School Pudding Recipes

Whether you loved or loathed school dinners, here are 5 school pudding recipes that will evoke fond memories. They are easy to make and taste delicious. What’s more, the ingredients are more than likely sitting in your kitchen now. So what’s stopping you?

1. Chocolate Pudding with Chocolate Custard

A favourite school pudding – I remember asking for seconds! This dessert is simple to make and has always been a favourite with my family. The recipe serves 6.

School Pudding Recipe No. 1

PREP TIME – 15 mins COOK TIME – 40 mins TOTAL TIME – 55 mins

Pudding

• 100g Margarine
• 100g Caster Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 175g Self Raising Flour
• 25g Cocoa Powder
• 25ml Milk
• 1tsp Vanilla Essence

Custard

• 1 pt Milk
• 3 tbsp Custard Powder
• 25g Cocoa Powder
• 2 tbsp Muscovado Sugar

Pudding

1. Line a 20cm square deep cake tin
2. Preheat your oven to 140ºC.
3. Put the margarine and sugar into a mixing bowl and whip until light and creamy.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time and whip until incorporated into the mixture.
5. Add the flour, cocoa powder, milk and vanilla essence and gently blend all the ingredients together
6. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes

Custard

1. In a medium size saucepan add the milk, custard powder, muscovado sugar and cocoa powder. Whisk all the ingredients well to make sure everything is dissolved.
2. Place the saucepan over a moderate heat and bring to the boil, stirring the liquid all the time to prevent burning and lumps.
3. As soon as it has boiled it is ready to serve.

2. Jam Roly Poly

Jam Roll Poly made a regular appearance as a pudding at School Dinner time. Because it was originally steamed and served in an old shirt sleeve, it was nicknamed “dead man’s arm”. This recipe is a family favourite and serves 5.

School Pudding Recipes – No. 2

PREP TIME – 15 mins COOK TIME – 20 mins TOTAL TIME – 35 mins

• 200g Self Raising Flour
• 100g Margarine
• Cold Water to mix
• 125g Jam (any jam can be used)
• Eggwash (1 Egg with a little milk mixed together)
• 1 tsp Caster Sugar

1. Preheat Oven to 180ºC
2. In a mixing bowl add the flour and margarine and mix to a crumb consistency.
3. Add a little of the water at a time to enable the dough to form. Stop mixing when the dough leaves the sides of the bowl.
4. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to form a rectangle, approximately 30cm x 25cm, having the longest side closest to you.
5. Spread your jam over the surface of the pastry leaving a 1.5cm space all around the edge.
6. Egg wash the edge furthest away from you.
7. Now gently roll the pastry away from you so as you form a cylinder and seal the ends with a fork.
8. Place the Roll Poly on a baking sheet. Egg wash the entire outside surface and sprinkle with the caster sugar.
9. Make 3 pointed knife incisions through the top of the Roll Poly to allow steam to escape during cooking
10. Place in the oven and cook for 20 minutes.
11. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving and serve with Custard.

3. Treacle Sponge

Here is another of those School Pudding Specials!! An amazing Dessert for those chillier nights. Easy to make and extremely more-ish!! This recipe serves 8 (or 6 if you’re feeling very hungry!!)

School Pudding Recipe – No. 3

PREP TIME – 30 mins COOK TIME – 1 hr TOTAL TIME – 1hr 30 mins

• 100g Margarine
• 100g Caster Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 200g Self Raising Flour
• 4 tbsp Milk
• 1 tbsp Vanilla Essence
• 5 tbsp golden Treacle
• Oil & Flour for preparation

1. Prepare a 16 cm pudding basin by oiling and flouring the inside. Then add the Golden Treacle to the bottom of the basin.
2. Beat together the margarine and sugar until light and creamy. Add two eggs, one at a time until thoroughly mixed. Then add the flour, milk and vanilla essence and gently bind the ingredients together.
3. Drop the mixture into the prepared basin on top of the jam. Cover with foil or grease-proof paper and place into a steamer. Cook for 60 minutes.
4. Test with a knife and if cooked, run a palette knife gently around the edge of the pudding. Put a plate on top of the pudding and turn it over. The pudding should slip out nicely onto the plate. Voila!! Add more Golden Treacle if you wish and serve with Custard, Ice Cream or Fresh Cream.
5. Serve Immediately.

4. Gypsy Tart

This pudding originates from the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. In the 1960s school children used to count it as one of their favourite school puddings and if you have a sweet tooth it is a recipe worth trying. It is a simple pudding to make and the secret is make sure you whip it enough. If in doubt – whip it some more.

School Pudding Recipes – No. 4

PREP TIME – 30 mins COOK TIME – 20 mins TOTAL TIME – 50 mins

Pastry Base

• 150g Self Raising Flour
• 75g Margarine
• Water to mix

Filling

• 183g Muscovado Sugar
• 150g Evaporated Mik

Pastry

1. Pre-heat oven to 180ºC.
2. Mix the flour and margarine together in a mixing bowl until light and crumbly. Add sufficient water to allow the pastry to bind together.
3. Roll out the pastry and line a 6 inch fluted dish with the paste.
4. The pastry has to be cooked blind. (For more details on how to do this click here). Cut a circle of grease-proof paper and place it on top of the pastry and fill the paper with baking beans to keep the paper and pastry in place whilst cooking.
5. Place the dish in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the paper liner and baking beans, and allow the pastry to cool.

Filling

1. Put the muscovado sugar in a mixing mixing bowl and gradually add the evaporated milk, with a slow whisk. When the ingredients are mixed together, turn up the whisk to full speed and continue mixing for a further 15 minutes. The mixture needs to have a mousse like consistency. Before continuing, check that the mixture is fully mixed by tasting it. If it is not gritty it is ready to bake.
2. Correct your oven temperature to 140ºC.
3. Pour the mixture into the pastry case and cook in the oven for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes check to see if it is cooked by giving it a little shake. If it mixture wobbles it needs a further 3 minutes. If not, turn off the oven and leave it inside to cool.

5. Steamed Raspberry Pudding

Take a trip down memory lane. You only have to look at this dessert to know you are going to love it. A true comfort food. A sponge pudding with raspberry jam drizzling down its sides. You’ll remember from school days that this pudding was served from large rectangular Grundy tins. This recipe serves 6.

School Pudding Recipes – No. 5

PREP TIME – 20 mins COOK TIME – 1 hr TOTAL TIME – 1 hr 20mins

• 100g Margarine
• 100g Caster Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 200g Self Raising Flour
• 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
• 2 tbsp Milk
• 6 tbsp Raspberry Jam

1. Use 6×6 fluid ounce pudding moulds & put 1 tablespoon of raspberry jam in each. Set to one side.
2. Put the margarine & sugar into a mixing bowl & beat until creamy.
3. Add one egg at a time to the mixture, beating well.
4. Add the flour, vanilla essence & milk, & fold into the mixture (do not beat)
5. Equally divide the mixture into the pudding bowls & cover each one with a lid or foil. Place the puddings into a pre- heated steamer & cook for 60 minutes.
6. Remove from the steamer, turn upside down onto a dish, & gently tap the bottom of the moulds to release the puddings.
7. Serving Suggestion – serve with fresh cream, custard or ice-cream

Remembering School Dinners

 I purposefully have not included the recipe for the most hated of all school puddings – tapioca! Commonly known as “frogspawn” by generations of school children, it is a pudding unlikely to evoke fond memories.

The school dinners I remember consisted of meat being on the menu everyday with boiled potatoes and two vegetables. On Fridays there was the inevitable fish, and we had a roast dinner once a week. And, of course, there were the hot puddings to follow!

School dinners were nutritious and filling. There was often the homely feel about them as often other mums served the meals – and you could often get second helpings!!

An interesting article entitled ‘How Times Have Changed: School Lunches‘ gives a short account of how the content of school dinners has changed over the years.

As winter approaches and the dark nights draw in, these are the days everyone needs to indulge in a bit of comfort food. Why not take a trip down Memory Lane and try one of these school pudding recipes?