One of the great compensations for saying farewell to summer is, in turn, waving hello to the season of comforting and hearty puddings. We’re not talking about fancy confections one might order in a restaurant. What we mean is the kind of fare that generations of our families might have cooked up in precisely the same way over many, many decades – or perhaps even longer. We’ve rounded up three of our favourite ideas for puddings to make just as the nights draw in, ideally to be eaten in pyjamas and in front of the fire.

Manon Lagrève’s Kouign Amann


Delicious Magazine
Manon Lagreve’s Kouign Amann

We really love a pudding that is low on ingredients and big on comfort. This recipe, as seen in Delicious Magazine and extracted from Et Voila: A Simple French Baking Love Story by Manon Lagrève, offers up sheer comfort using only very simple ingredients (butter, bread flour, activated yeast, salt and sugar) and hails from Brittany. Kouign amann means ‘butter cake’ in the Breton language and, as the recipe suggests, you could also add apple and cinnamon too if you so wish. Warming and wonderful. Find the recipe here.


Gingerbread And Butter Pudding


Maldon Salt
Aut Puddings Gingerbread And Butter Pud Maldon Salt

Bread and butter pudding is one of our all-time favourites for autumn and winter thanks to the fact that, simply, it is warmth and cosy contentment in a bowl. Plus, we love any cuisine that uses up leftovers – like Tuscan food, which centres very much around this notion, it tends to be honest and unpretentious and, somehow, unfailingly and wholly delicious. We very much like this recipe from Malden Salt’s website, which suggests heaping autumnal comfort upon autumnal comfort via the replacement of just any old sliced bread with that of slightly going over gingerbread cake. Who could possibly, after all, resist its rich warming spiced flavours married with whole milk, double cream, eggs and cinnamon and nutmeg amongst other things? Simple yet decadent, it’s one to gobble in front a favourite old film on a Sunday night between throwing logs on the fire. Find the recipe here.


Quince And Honey Cake


Olive Magazine
Quince And Honey Cake

Light on ingredients and effort, heavy on flavour and so very impressive to behold, this quince and honey cake is a perfect, vivid and arresting way to use quince as they come into season in October and November. Make it for friends for a lovely showstopping end to an evening, or simply for yourself to eat with a dollop of clotted cream and a nice cup of tea. Find the recipe here.

By Nancy Alsop
September 2023