I was explaining to a friend how tired I am, and illustrated my point by saying I’d watched Goodfellas a week prior but still hadn’t worked up the energy to log it on Letterboxd; and immediately realised that probably wasn’t a dramatic as it sounded in my head. But the fact is I am tired and this blog has suffered as a result (and so have my numerous other open tabs, including Goodfellas on Letterboxd which I finally logged yesterday; whereupon the nation undoubtedly breathed a sigh of relief.) Indeed, I made this Caramel Banana Self-Saucing Pudding several weeks ago and apparently needed this much run-up to write about it, but here it is at last, and it’s fantastically delicious.

This is a recipe I found online at Full of Plants; and I didn’t see the need to change anything much, short of using brown sugar over coconut (because that’s what I had), increasing the spices and simplifying the already-simple method a little. Although all baking is about chemistry at its core; self-saucing puddings really put the science front and centre with their daring method, and whoever discovered that pouring boiling water over batter and baking it somehow creates a pudding on top of a layer of sauce below deserves the Nobel prize and a kiss upon the forehead.

As a kid we occasionally made something called “Chocolate Floating Pudding”, a densely cocoa-fied self-saucing pudding done in the microwave (this was in the multi-year stretch where the microwave was our main cooking appliance), but I haven’t noticed this pudding format enjoy a strong resurgence or culinary gentrification since; nevertheless it’s a perennial delight and the trust-the-process process still feels like magic every time. This version brings in mashed banana and caramel, two flavours that work splendidly together, warmed up with a little cinnamon and ginger, and bound in a light gluten-free batter comprised largely of oat flour and ground almonds. This blog is generally pretty gluten-heavy by design but the oats and almonds lend a nutty fluffiness to the pudding and it’s useful to have such options available.

The finished pudding is like a banana cake crossed with a dateless sticky toffee pudding; with the softly cakey layer giving way to a shimmering puddle of caramel sauce. The first time I made this I cooked it slightly too long and the sauce absorbed into the cake; it still tasted wonderful, you simply can’t go wrong here. And if you’re in the mood for more pudding — and why wouldn’t you be — I also recommend my Christmas Sticky Toffee Pudding, which is good at any time of year but also we’re one good blink away from it suddenly being December; my Peach Galette and this Passionfruit Panna Cotta.

Caramel Banana Self-Saucing Pudding

Just the kind of cosy, squishy, cinnamon-scented pudding you need while there’s still a chill in the air, and very easy to put together. Adapted slightly from this Full of Plants recipe.

• 1 and 1/2 cups oat flour
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mashed banana (about 2-3 medium bananas)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil or butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup recently-boiled water
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, extra

1: Preheat your oven to 180C/350F. Find a rectangular baking dish of around 22x15cm, and fill your kettle or jug with water and flick it on to start boiling.

2: In a mixing bowl, stir together the 1 and 1/2 cups oat flour, the half cup ground almonds and 1/3 cup brown sugar, the one and a half teaspoons baking powder and half teaspoon baking soda, the teaspoon of cinnamon, the half teaspoon of ginger, and the quarter teaspoon of salt.

3: Stir in the cup of mashed banana, the half cup of milk, the two tablespoons of melted coconut oil and the teaspoon of vanilla, to form a thick batter. Spread this batter into your baking dish in an even layer.

4: Sprinkle the 1/2 cup of brown sugar over the surface of the batter, and then carefully pour the 3/4 cup recently-boiled water over the back of a spoon (to break its fall, so to speak, so it doesn’t plunge into the batter) over the sugar. This may sound like a lot of water but it all comes together in the oven.

5: Bake for 25 minutes and serve warm with milk, cream, or ice cream.

Serves 4-6. The sauce will absorb into the pudding after a while but any leftovers microwave very well.

Notes: You can quickly make oat flour by whizzing rolled oats up in a blender; this is what I did.

music lately:

The Thrill of it All, by Black Sabbath; this song commences with an energetic preamble before changing gears to a grimly killer riff and then halfway through switches gears yet once more to a kind of zany, new-wave synthy sound with extremely satisfying vocals from Ozzy Osbourne; a lazier band would have split the difference and made this into three songs, but not those diligent Sabbath boys!

It’s Love by King’s X, I am very fond of the juxtaposition of the sludgy guitars with sixties harmonies here.

Adagio from Spartacus by Khachaturian, I had been searching for this on vinyl for years and it finally appeared in the crates recently. It’s achingly beautiful, the sort of music that could quell a herd of stampeding wildebeest with its beauty, plunging them into an existential crisis about the meaning of life; if you are more impatient than a literal wildebeest then I suggest jumping to about 5 minutes 55 seconds in when the crescendo really goes for it.

Violet by Hole; like drinking orange juice straight after cleaning your teeth and finding it to be delicious.