Saturday, October 22, 2011

Malva pudding


Sometimes, dessert is warranted. I thought I'd make a treat for the Frenchman: Friday night, weekend ahead, two days of no 5am wake up calls. And he loves, loves, malva pudding. Which is kind of funny. It's a very English sort of pudding: spongy, a little sticky, warm, eaten with custard. 

You can't look at a menu in 85% of South African restaurants without seeing and later meeting some version of it. 

Last year, in Cape Town, I went off on a cyber search for the origin of malva pudding, hoping to conclude that a local rose-scented pelargonium had lent its name to the moist dessert. Via that search we met David Pepler, whose mother Maggie baked it at the behest, so he says, of Michael Olivier, at Boschendal, the legendary wine estate between Stellenbosch and Franschoek, and where the buffets (Maggie's buffets) were famous. All very interesting.


But it took me a while to figure out the recipe that resembled, as closely as possible, the mass-produced but delicious malva pudding sold by the high end South African supermarket chain, Woolworths. Go figure. But here it is, or there it was, last night, at last. A little more butter, a little more vinegar, a quarter cup less sugar.

The malva pudding recipe is up at 66 Square Feet (the Food).

12 comments:

  1. Looking forward to seeing your recipe.

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  2. Somewhere in the piles of old recipe books I have the original Boschendal one - it was pretty epic in its day...!
    Xxx Fran (bb doesn't give option to add name, everything appears anonymous - hello Marie!

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  3. Lovely photos of the Malva pud!
    Yes, I remember sampling THE Malva pudding at Boschendal in 1992 - the Buffet was endless. (Those were the days...).
    We make our own Malva at our restaurant in Joburg - when we have our American tour groups they go mad for it. Have shared our recipe with many American visitors!

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  4. I fiddled with Ina Paarman's recipe recently... for the end to an Indian meal. Added ground cardomom and ginger and Cointreau in the sauce. We licked the dishes!

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  5. Pam - coming, coming...

    Fran - hi! For just your name chose the Name/Url option, and leave the url box blank. So the B'dal recipe was published? I didn't know that...xxx

    Trish - wow, you knew the buffet:) Perhaps if malva pudding were served to politicians everything would turn out OK.

    Lily - really? That's a good idea. Now I want curry.

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  6. Oh dear- I confess to buying the malva pudding from P 'n P for sunday lunch, was even too lazy to make the extra stop to woolies....next time!
    Yours looks scrummy delish...

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  7. Hi, it wasn't published but after eating it there one Winter Sunday, we asked for the recipe and they gave it to us! x Fran
    PS My blackberry doesn't give me the Option to do the name thing..

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  8. lakka pics of malva pudding i just wanna go get one from somewhere it looks too damn good!!!!!

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  9. It's looks so good! I'm a huge fan of desserts like this. I've never heard of this pudding though. Now I must do some googling!

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  10. Klink heerlik. Ek hoop die Fransman was bly ;-)

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  11. Oh lovely .. but I must confess I have never heard of Malva Pudding.

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  12. Ek is so 'n totale David Pepler groupie. Ek wens ek het klas gehad by hom. Ek maak 'n amazing malvapoeding, met heelwat appelkooskonfyt in plaas van asyn en suiker. Njam.

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