Rooibos Malva Pudding (South Africa)

This recipe looked very interesting; probably because it resembled a syrup sponge. And who doesn't love syrup sponge? 

Infusing the Rooibos
teabags

The only reason we didn't do this recipe sooner on in the challenge is because Soph and I had never heard of Rooibos tea and we assumed it would be tricky to track down. We were assured by friends that it was in fact very easy to find so on our next shopping day, we looked for it and, sure enough, right there with all of the other teas/infusions was a packet of Rooibos tea. So, we went home excited anticipation for our desert for the evening. 


When it came time to make the pudding, we were also plesently surprised to discover how simple it was. First, you mix the pudding ingredients together in a specific order. One of these that I was worried about was apricot jam. For some reason, I only like red/black jams. I've never been overly fond of apricots, although I can't say when I last tried eating one. Basically yellow fruits just never appealed to me.  Regardless, in this recipe there wasn't a particularly large amount of jam included so I hoped that the pudding wouldn't taste too apricoty and plodded on. 


Allegra gives rather particular instructions when it comes to combining the liquid with the dry mixtures for the sponge. Once the butter, egg and sugar are blended, you should add a little of each, alternating between wet and dry, until all of the ingredients are mixed. This seemed rather finiky but didn't take as long as I thought it might. 

My second moment of doubt for this recipe came after you've added all of the ingredients in together, when Allegra says to pour in a considerable amount of white wine vinegar. I had never made a pudding before where white wine vinegar had been an ingredient and the weirdest part about adding this was what it did to the mixture. It's clearly intended to airate the pudding but, not knowing this at the time, seeing the mixture rise and form bubbles was a little panic-inducing. It didn't take long for us to realise this must be why it's used though and that calmed our fears, we just hoped you wouldn't be able to taste it. 

What happens when you
add vinegar to sponge
mixture!  

Once this is done, you pour it into your dish and start making a Rooibos syrup. After letting two tea bags infuse a small amount of water, you add sugar, butter, and some more of the dreaded apricot jam and heat it on the hob for a little while, until everything is melted/dissolved. 

About half of this syrup is then poured over the pudding mixture, and the pudding is put into the oven, covered with foil. 


After about half an hour, you take it out of the oven, pour over the rest of the syrup and cook it uncovered for another 20 or so minutes. 

Our oven runs a little hot so we should really have put it on a slightly lower temperature than it was.  

What emerges from the oven after this is a sublime-looking Rooibos pudding. It smelled fantastic and looked great. Ours was a little burned on the edges, resulting in some particularly solid syrup pieces, but it got eaten nonetheless. 

This recipe was so amazing that we actually made it the next week as well. Since most of the ingredients will probably be in your house anyway, all you need is a jar of apricot jam and a pack of tea bags and you can make these till your heart's content. 

It's safe to say this is a recipe that will be repeated time and time again because it was so tasty and simple to make. I think it was so well recieved because it was different from the deserts we usually make but not so out-there that it was complicated or odd-tasting. you couldn't taste the vinegar or the apricot jam so I was very happy with that and all-in-all. Good call Allegra!