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Gingerbread pudding with butterscotch sauce

Gingerbread pudding with butterscotch sauce

“Remember eating gingerbread when you were young? Well forget it, you’ve just grown up.”
This is one of cult UK chef Fergus Henderson's favourite puddings from his book Beyond Nose to Tail (Allen & Unwin).

Gingerbread pudding with butterscotch sauce

Serves 8
Cooking Time Prep time 15 mins, cook 1.5 hours
Gingerbread pudding
90 gm   stale white bread, crusts removed
175 gm   plain flour
90 gm (¾ cup)   ground almonds
175 gm   fresh minced beef suet (see note)
25 gm   baking powder
1 pinch   salt
1½ tsp   ground ginger
1 tsp   ground mixed spice
2   large (70gm each) eggs
175 gm   stem ginger in syrup
2 tbsp   fresh ginger, grated
3 tbsp   grated apple
180 gm (½ cup)   golden syrup
180 gm (½ cup)   black treacle
150 ml   full-cream milk
To serve:   vanilla ice-cream
Butterscotch sauce
250 gm   caster sugar
600 ml   double cream
125 gm   unsalted butter, cut into small dice


1 Rip the bread into 2cm pieces and place in a large mixing bowl. Sift the flour over the bread, then add the remaining ingredients. Stir together for 4 minutes or until thoroughly combined. Butter and flour a 2.3-litre pudding basin and spoon in the mixture; the basin should be about three-quarters full. Cover the mixture with a circle of baking paper, then place a piece of foil (with a generous pleat in the middle) over the basin and secure with string. Put the basin in a deep roasting tin and pour enough hot water into the tin to come half-way up the sides of the basin. Steam in the oven for 1½ hours (remember to keep the water topped up). Turn onto a serving dish.
2 For the butterscotch sauce, put the sugar into a heavy-based saucepan with 2 tbsp water and melt over low heat, tilting the pan occasionally so the sugar melts evenly. Increase the heat to medium and cook, without stirring, until it turns into a golden-brown caramel. Slowly pour in the cream, being careful as the hot caramel will spit. Turn the heat to low and let the caramel dissolve slowly into the cream. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter, a few pieces at a time. Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl and pour over gingerbread pudding. Serve with vanilla ice-cream, if desired.

Note Minced beef suet is available from specialist butchers. You may need to order it ahead.

RECIPE Fergus Henderson and Justin Piers Gellatly PHOTOGRAPHY Chris Chen STYLING Emma Knowles and Elodie Rambaud

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