Who knew that my death cell pudding, favourite all time dessert follows the route the Tour De France just took? I suppose the Kent part is pushing it a bit and it didn’t go to Scotland this time…but they probably travelled through Kent to get to the next stage, and there is a strong alliance between Scotland and France – okay that is tenuous at best…

Back to the tale.

Golden syrup was originally made in factories on the banks of the Thames in East London so that bit is a definite link to the route on Monday.

I’d started to prepare this when I noticed a text from my uncle Little D complaining about the lack of traditional (by which he means British) food in my blog – it’s a coincidence that I was making this, but this one is for him….

When I was a child, we were allowed to have left over yorkshire puddings with jam or golden syrup on them which was always such a treat. I love them best warm from the oven, with a few strawberries and a generous drizzle of golden syrup, with cold cream. I’ve seen Nigella do something similar without the strawberries, but I’ve gotta tell you, I was doing this when I was a child so I claim the right to at least talk about it!

For Rocket, though, I bought some Mackie’s ice cream, he really rates it and I imagine that the cold of the ice cream and heat of the pudding is delicious but it’s not for me, so mine comes with cream.

I know everyone has their way with Yorkshires so feel free if you decide to indulge – it really doesn’t matter as long as they are crispy around the edge and softly doughy inside.

First I make the batter:

1 cup plain flour

2 large free range eggs, lightly beaten

About 1 cup milk – added gradually to see how the consistency is.

1 small pinch of salt

I just needed to end up with the consistency of thick double cream.

Mix all the ingredients together, ignore the lumps, give it a bit of whisk to make sure all are combined then sit in the fridge for a few hours.

I put the oven on the highest heat, and add a couple of teaspoons into the base of the compartments in a yorkshire tin /patty tin or muffin tin.

I put the tray with the oil into the oven on a high but not top shelf.

I took the batter from the fridge, pulled out the oven shelf with the tray on, gently poured the batter into the hot oil filling the compartments up to about the 3/4 level. Be really careful when doing this, it’s easy to get burned, trust me.

I closed the oven door and then turned the oven down slightly to a gas mark 7.

The I let them cook without opening the oven door, for about 30 minutes – after about 20 minutes, you can open the door if you must. If the puddings had started to burn as they sometimes can, but the middle was still a bit ‘loose’ just move them down a shelf or turn the oven down a bit.

When they are done, take the puddings out, put one onto a plate, put some sliced strawberries in the middle, drizzle the whole thing with golden syrup and put a scoop of vanilla ice cream or good drizzle of double cream over the top.