Wednesday 22 May 2013

Golden Syrup Dumplings and a confession

There was great excitement in our house a few days ago when I decided to make golden syrup dumplings for dessert.  I don't make proper dessert very often.  Sylvia was up on a chair begging to help with stirring.  She oohed and aahed at the golden syrup and tried to get a fingerful despite my stern words.  E just loves anything caramel, especially if there is no chocolate or fruit involved.  And everyone loves comforting dumplings on a cold wet evening.

So let me deviate from my recipe and make a confession about one of my favourite dumpling dishes.  I love making Mexicale Pie with Cornmeal Dumplings.  It is a recipe that I found soon after I went vegetarian twenty-odd years ago.  I posted about it on my blog soon after I started this blog about 6 years ago.  I still make it regularly.

It is a mystery and an embarrassment that it has taken me until last week to find that I had written 'plain flour' rather than 'self raising flour' in the blog version of the recipe.  I have now added baking powder to the recipe (which will turn plain flour into self raising flour).  I just hope there haven't been many people making horrid unleavened dumplings like the ones I made last week.  If you have, I apologise.  (But I suspect anyone who tried that recipe may never have returned to my blog.)

Fortunately the golden syrup dumplings were far more successful.  I combined the simple recipe from Kate at No Meat and Three Veg and the richer recipe from the Australian Women's Weekly's Old Fashioned Favourites.  It was very very sweet.  E and I loved them.  Sylvia loved cooking them more than eating them.

Next time I might scale back some of the sugar, as Kate did (and as I suspect is more old-fashioned) and even try a little lemon in the sauce as I have seen a few recipes do.  I also made the mistake of serving it with vanilla ice cream that was too sweet for the dumplings.  Regular cream would be preferable.  (I would just eat it without cream or ice cream but E would not.)  I also quite like my friend Will's way of baking the dumplings with a lump of chocolate in them.  Another time.

I have wanted to make golden syrup dumplings for a long time.  It is a dessert that I ate as a child.  A good old fashioned recipe.  Kate rolled hers into neat balls but I love the cloudy shapes that the dumplings make when dropped into the syrup.  They were more caramelly than I remember, possibly because I used brown sugar.  No complaints.

I am sure I will make them again.  The recipe is quick and simple, using only store cupboard ingredients.  Not at all fancy.  Exactly the sort of desserts I ate in my childhood.  I was sure it is the sort of thing to be made throughout Australia's history but there is very little online or in my history cookbooks.  Nevertheless eating golden syrup dumplings feels like your grandmother wrapping a warm blanket around you.  Just the sort of comfort food we need over winter.

I am sending this to Janice of Farmersgirl Kitchen for this month's Credit Crunch Munch. This is an event founded by Helen of Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla Fab Food for All that promotes frugal recipes. This recipes is frugal because it provides a delicious dessert without any fancy or expensive ingredients.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
One year ago: Buttery quince and almond cake
Two years ago: St Andrews Market - crafts in the bush
Three years ago: Sophie's moreish tofu - adapted
Four years ago: WTSIM ... Red Onion, Feta and Olive Tart
Five years ago: Promoting Promite

Golden Syrup Dumplings
adapted from Not Meat and three Veg and AWW Old Fashioned Favourites
serves 4

Dumplings:
1 cup self raising flour
2 tbsp butter or  margarine (I used Nuttelex)
1/3 cup milk (80ml) milk (I used soy milk)
1 tbsp golden syrup

Sauce:
3 tbsp golden syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 and 1/4 cup water
1 tbsp lemon juice (I didn't use but will try it next time)

cream to serve

Rub butter into flour in a medium bowl.  Stir in milk and golden syrup to make a soft dough.

Put all ingredients for the sauce into a medium saucepan and bring to the boil.  Reduce to a simmer and gently drop spoonfuls of dumpling mixture into the saucepan.  You should have about 8 dumplings.

Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Turn over about once or twice to make sure all dumplings are covered with sauce.  Use a spoon to take a small piece of dumpling to test they are cooked.  The sauce should have thickened up.

Serve dumplings with sauce spooned over them.  Serve cream on the side if desired.

Notes: June 2016 - tried it with a tablespoon on lemon juice and E said to leave out the lemon juice next time and keep it sweet.  Perhaps just a half tsp of lemon juice and a bit less brown sugar would work.

On the stereo:
Super Trouper: ABBA

29 comments:

  1. Heh! I too am a big fan of the GSD. We made them in high school home economics class from the Cookery the Australian Way cookbook :)

    In fact, I loved them so much that in the past (a few years ago), I set myself a challenge of "GSD in 5 minutes". It involved cooking them in the microwave and yes, I was able to create an individual serve in 5 minutes, including cooking time :)

    I always made mine in the oven (when making a full size recipe) and had tried the stove once. Hmmm, I might just be making these again soon!

    I also set myself the challenge of different versions. In one version, I added orange marmalade to the syrup; in another version it was lime marmalade. Another version had a little ginger added.

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    1. Thanks Veganopoulous - it is such a cookery the australian way sort of recipe - not sure if we made them at school but my mum made them at home sometimes - sounds like you should do a post on GSDs. I love microwave desserts so making them this way sounds great but I am not sure i would have your dedication to preparations (re your butter-flour mix below).

      Interesting that you had some with marmalade because when I looked at some of my early 20th century cookbooks to see if they had golden syrup dumplings they didn't but they had a golden pudding that included marmalade and breadcrumbs.

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  2. oh, I should add that for the 'rub butter in to flour' stage, I always used the food processor. And I made a batch of the butter-flour and froze it so that when I wanted my GSD in 5 Minutes I just took some of the butter-flour mix out of the freezer :)

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  3. I've only made golden syrup dumplings once, because they were just too sweet and stodgy for my (and my family's) liking. I always like the SOUNDS of them, though!

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    1. Thanks Hannah - sweet yes but the dumplings are actually quite light (well light for stodgy dumplings!) - I wonder if the lemon juice helps and I thought even a pinch of salt might help the sweetness too.

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  4. Yum will have to try your version! Nice in cooler weather...

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    1. Thanks Kate - definitely the thing for this weather

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  5. What a fascinating recipe!! I've never heard of sweet dumplings like these (but of course I know I'd love them). And too funny about that casserole! You could just call them gnocchi in that case, right? ;-)

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    1. Thanks Ricki - you really could get into the Australian way of desserts and slices. Re the casserole the dumplings were too stodgy and stiff to be gnocchi as well as the ones in the middle that weren't even cooked through - such a low point in my long history of mexicale pie :-(

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  6. I was just thinking how suitable the weather was for golden syrup dumplings! I had a sticky date pudding and it felt so right with the chill in the air!

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    1. Thanks Lorraine - ooh I could go some sticky date pudding tonight - sweet and stodgy is just what the weather calls for

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  7. I have a confession to make too - I made your Mexicali Pie about 3 or 4 years ago and can recall that it was one of the few recipes I had tried from your blog that was disappointing! It didn't scare me off though ;)

    I actually don't think any of us are particularly fond of dumplings or US style biscuits in casseroles as I've tried other recipes more recently and they haven't been popular either.

    I've never heard of golden syrup dumplings, I do like the sound of them with some lemon juice added!

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    1. Thanks Mel - glad you weren't scared off - if you didn't dislike dumplings I would try and convince you to try this again with the raising agent. I have thought I need a better photo for that post so maybe next time I can show them in their full glory. They are more like cornbread than the usual dumplings I have made but so much better when risen.

      Golden syrup dumplings are very simple but I don't know how you would find them given your lack of sweet tooth and lack of fondness for dumplings - but I think these are better than many savoury dumplings if that helps.

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  8. Arghh! YUM!! I have been meaning to take a trip back to my childhood and veganise these but just haven't gotten around to it. These look AMAZING...I can taste them already! Thank you !

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    1. Thanks Little Vegan Bear - easy to veganise though I noticed that some recipes had eggs but the two recipes I looked at didn't. Enjoy

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  9. I don't think I've ever had dumplings of the sweet or savoury variety, which on reflection now seems a bit odd! I love the sound of these but suspect they might be a bit sweet and dense for me too - although in saying that, I have fond memories of treacle pudding and in my mind that would be similarly sweet and dense so perhaps I'd be just fine. I chuckled at your Mexicali Pie omission too - it makes me feel better if you can manage such things as your blog is usually so well organised!

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    1. Thanks Kari - Dumplings are comfort food so I would encourage you to try them, though they are usually stodgy so may not appeal if you don't like dense. My favourite dumplings are the mexicale pie (yes I make typos all the time - wish I had an editor to spot them for me - try to fix them if I see them). I think these would be similar to treacle pudding - cooked batter with lots of sweet sauce.

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  10. These look scrumptious! BTW I approve of your music - I adore ABBA.

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    1. Thanks Cakelaw - sylvia is really into super trouper all of a sudden and she is not always pleased that I know a lot of the words and can sing along :-)

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  11. These look divine and just what you need on cold wintery summers days (like today!) I never knew you could bake sweet dumplings straight in the suace like that - will have to try!

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    1. Thanks Katie - your weather is a good reason that this sort of meal was made by our british and irish foremothers - it is always golden syrup dumplings weather there, surely!

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  12. I've never heard of golden syrup dumplings but I feel they may fill a hole in my life. They look so delicious!

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    1. Thanks Hannah - I am sure your life would be complete after eating golden syrup dumplings :-)

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  13. A real comfort pud there, thanks for joining us for Credit Crunch Munch

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  14. Ooh these sound absolutely yummy and perfect for the cold weather we've been having lately. We all make mistakes on our blogs but hopefully we learn from them LOL! By the way it's not Credit Card Munch LOL but thank you for entering Credit Crunch Munch:-)

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    1. Thanks Camilla - oh dear - a terrible typo in this post while lamenting another typo - I really need more proof reading - will go and change this - and sorry to hear you are having cold weather at this time of year but at least it gives you reason to eat more warm puddings :-)

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  15. Getting right into sough dough at the moment, would a sour dough work with the recipe?

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    1. I am sure some sourdough would work here though you would not get to use up heaps - you could use some thin sourdough instead of the milk in the recipe - if you try it let me know how it goes!

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