After making the Dutch Cake in the post here, I made versions of this as a pudding, served either individually like these blackberry ones or in one large dish as the plum version below. Other fruits like apricots, peaches, raspberries or blueberries could be used instead.
I’ve jotted down notes below.
What’s obvious about using the different fruits than the traditional apple is that the runny batter doesn’t support the fruit and it sinks to the bottom…perfect.
For creating this blackberry soaked sponge underneath.
The other version using plums is also delicious and I was struck by the scent of the plums hitting my nose when turning out the sponge.
Both the blackberry and plum puddings here are a dairy-free version I created.
Notes for Plum Version
The plum pudding can either be served straight from the baking dish or as I’ve shown above can be turned upside first in order to see the cut fruit on top of the sponge.
If wanting to turn the pudding over with the plums, you’ll have to line the bottom of the baking dish with baking paper.
These were medium size plums that had good flavour and their scent when baked was heavenly.
I had other smaller golden round-shaped plums which were an absolute sod to stone. In trying to remove the stone I destroyed the shape of the plum into mush in my hand. Afterwards Gloria (the canning queen) told me the trick with those types of plums is to pop them into the microwave for 10 seconds first. Will try that next time.
The plum pudding will take longer to bake than the original apple one, it can take a total of 30-40mins. The best way to tell if the sponge is baked is to see and feel the sponge. It should feel firm.
If using a cocktail stick it will be very deceptive because half the sponge will be soaked with plum and their juice which means the stick will come out wet.
I could tell by the cracks in the middle and the firmness when I pressed in the middle the sponge it was baked.
If turning over the plum pudding you’ll see how the sponge around the plums is soaked with its juice.
But the sponge on top of the plums is baked through.
You don’t have to turn the pudding over, instead can be serve it like below, straight from the baking dish.
Just add cream.
The individual blackberry dishes were baked very quickly in about 20 minutes.
I added two layers of blackberries, the first ones sunk to the bottom…
…and the second sat on top of the first layer.
The sponge puffs up around them.
Individual Puddings
For the individual dishes they are about 175ml (3/4 cup) volume capacity. There’s enough batter for 8 of those, possible even 10. You could use half of the batter for individual servings and the rest for a large dish for keeping cold.
For the blackberry version they baked quickly, 20mins. I haven’t made this size with plums but they may take a bit longer than blackberry ones. If making this dairy-free version using vegetable oil they may also take longer.
For the normal recipe; Dutch / Norwegian Apple Cake.
For the dairy-free version; Dutch Cake Dairy-Free Version
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
These remind me of North American cobblers, slumps and grunts! Are you familiar with those?
Hi Catherine – we have cobbler over here but had not heard of slump or grunt which when I googled came across this useful site http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/CobblerHistory.htm
Thank you, always interested to read about something new to me.
That’s a very good site for background info. I used to make a lot of buckles, mostly blueberry, but rhubarb as well. Even people who didn’t like rhubarb liked the buckle as it cooked down into something resembling apples.
Have you heard this song? Shoefly pie and apple pan dowdy, make your eyes light up and make you say howdy?
My grandmother used to make fabulous apple dumplings. They consisted of individual apples, cored and peeled, with the centres filled with butter and spices, and then covered in an individual piece of pastry and baked, then served with homemade custard.
Never heard of the song Catherine but I have come across the apple wrapped in pastry idea a long time ago, not something you see often now.