Spiced Orange Puddings Recipe

These warming little spiced orange puddings are perfect for the increasingly chilly weather, and a good alternative to Christmas puddings for the Christmas pud haters.

The secret to getting this recipe right is to unmould the spiced orange puddings and serve them as soon as possible after coming out of the oven. Not just because you'll want to eat these nice and hot – but also to stop the orange slices at the bottom from sticking.

The candied orange slices caramelise in the tin while everything's baking, and when that caramel cools it gets stickier and stickier, until it solidifies. The first time I tested my spiced orange pudding recipe while developing it, I made the mistake of letting the puddings cool completely in the tin. Cue me having to boil the moulds in a big pan of water to get the orange slices out, which had firmly fused themselves to the tins.

With only this in mind, this is actually an easy recipe to whip up: you just need one pan to make the orange slices and syrup, and another to mix up the pudding batter in. It's minimal washing up, which is just how I like it.

You can also see how I make these with my YouTube video:

Ready? Let's go.

(Makes four individual puddings.)

Ingredients:

4 fresh, small orange slices
100ml water
100g caster sugar
50g unsalted butter
50g light muscovado sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 egg
115g self-raising flour
Zest and juice of 1 orange

Method:

1. First, make the candied orange slices: place them in a pan along with the caster sugar and water, bring to a boil, and reduce down to a simmer, cooking for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let the orange slices cool in the syrup.

2. Preheat the oven to 180°C, and grease and line four individual pudding moulds with a little softened butter or oil and baking parchment at the bottom.

3. Melt the butter and muscovado sugar together in a saucepan, and stir in the spices. Take off the heat and leave to cool to room temperature before beating in the egg. Then stir in the flour, zest and orange juice.

4. Fish out the orange slices from the cooled syrup (keep the syrup for later), and place a slice at the bottom of each mould. Pour over the pudding batter, dividing it equally between the four moulds, and bake for 25–30 minutes until risen, golden brown and puffy.

5. Remove from the oven, and wait just five minutes to cool a little before running a knife around the edges of the tins and removing the puddings from the moulds onto a plate. Use a tea towel or oven mitts to hold the tins as they'll still be quiet hot. If you wait too long for the puddings to cool down, the caramelised orange slices will stick to the tins and baking parchment.

5. Serve immediately with a drizzle of the orange syrup. And, if you like, a dollop of custard, cream or ice cream.

Enjoy, and have fun.