Enkosi Cookathon: Malva Pudding

Can you imagine a South-African inspired cookathon without Malva Pudding? We couldn’t, so here is Justin Bonello’s winning recipe for the spongy Mzanzi favourite, one of the seven recipes in our Enkosi Cookathon collection.

Like many South African classics, this one has Cape Dutch origins although households up and down the country have their own variations. Cook this Malva pud, submit a photo before midnight 23 October and stand a chance to win some of the world’s finest kitchen tools. Good times. Download printable version of this recipe.
This golden oldie is a goodie. It’s eternally popular and never dates. As one of my all-time favourite puds, I’ve experimented over the years with many a variation and modification and here I share with you my tried and trusted, most successful combination – scored from an ou tannie at one of the restaurants where I worked as a waiter in my late teens. Please, when I say CUP, I mean 250ml. Baking is an exact science – get the quantities wrong, and the only thing I can guarantee is a flop.

This recipe serves 6 to 8

What you’ll need:
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 tablespoon smooth apricot jam
1¼ cups cake flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
a pinch of salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
½ cup milk
muffin tray

For the glaze:
1 cup cream
125g butter
½ cup brandy
½ cup sugar

Method:

This recipe makes 12 Malva muffins but you can make one big Malva pud, as pictured, if you like.

Beat the sugar and the eggs in a bowl until the mixture is fluffy and the sugar granules have disintegrated (you can use an electric beater to make this easier), then add the apricot jam and mix it all up. In another bowl sift the flour, bicarb and salt together at least twice. Next, melt the butter and add the vinegar and the milk. (If the butter is too hot, the mixture will curdle and you’ll have to chuck it – so don’t superheat the butter/milk/vinegar mixture.) Now add the dry mix and the butter/milk/vinegar mix alternately to the egg mix, folding in well.

Pour the mixture evenly into a butter-greased muffin tray (one with 12 muffin cups). Each muffin cup should be about half filled. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for between 45 minutes and 1 hour. Because of all the sugar, you can cook the pud until it’s nice and brown.

The magic is really in this glaze – it’s the glisten that adds the sparkle to this timeless gem. Melt all the ingredients together and keep warm. When the pud comes out of the oven, pour the glaze over the hot baked Malva Muffins immediately so that it penetrates right through them. Serve individually with double thick whipped cream and/or a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream.  The contrast of piping hot and ice cold is really lekker.

PS. It’s best to serve the pudding hot as soon as it comes out of the oven, although at the restaurant where I worked so many years ago I used to sneak into the cold room and eat cold portions. One thing I can promise – try this one and you’ll be an addict for ever.

Published courtesy of Penguin and twoshoes.co.za
This recipe features in Justin Bonello’s book, Cooked in Africa.
Find out more about Justin Bonello.