Finally, the book is out!

The book is published, at long last!  Complete with a handsome yellow cover, some great sketches and all the recipes (as well as my scintillating prose), it is available directly from me (h.evans@4newsquare.com) at the moment for the modest price of £8.99.  In due course, it will also be on Amazon, but as I would like to cover the costs of production, and Amazon's "cut" of the cover price is fairly brutal, do buy it from me if you can.  I'll even sign it for you, or for your Auntie, if you would like.

Half-Pay Pudding

I was reading the proofs of the book last weekend.  Neither Hampshire six cup (equal volumes SR flour, breadcrumbs, dried fruit, suet, sugar and milk), nor its close relation, half-pay pudding (same, but double dried fruit and some treacle), had eggs in them. This didn't feel right. How would it stay together? As I hadn't made either for some while, I made a half-pay pudding for dinner last saturday.  It was a big one, and I was feeding ten, but there was some left at the end (but no treacle tart, and virtually no blackberry and apple tarte Tatin), which I have been muching through ever since.  You don't need eggs in Hampshire six cup or half-pay pudding!

STP

Last Saturday, I made my children's favourite pudding, Sticky Toffee Pudding. I must admit it does taste a lot better than the stuff they gave my elder son in a restaurant earlier that day! That, he said, "was horrible!". I boiled the sauce, by accident. That always makes it a bit grainier, which hardly matters much.  It also makes it a bit chewier/stickier, which is good particularly for children between about (say) 6 and 10.  Children of discernment, like my daughter Juliet (14) prefer it smoother. However, it is a matter of personal taste.