Marmalade toast sponge pudding

This winter has been the coldest in a while here in Sydney, and it's been raining for what feels like weeks. I've been really embracing puddings lately and this one is a recent revelation. The recipe comes from Jess Elliot Dennison, a Scottish cook whose recipes are in regular rotation in my repertoire. Her sticky triple ginger cake is a favourite, and now this genius pantry-cupboard pudding that utilises two ingredients I am extremely fond of and thus never without: sourdough bread, and marmalade. It comes together quickly, uses just one egg (a bonus in these dark times of avian flu and eye-watering egg prices) and offers comfort from the cold, and the dark. A bit of decadent dairy is a good accompaniment - ice cream of course, but plain old single cream is simple and delicious, especially soaked in to the sponge.

Marmalade toast sponge pudding
Adapted from a recipe by Jess Elliot Dennison, as published in Midweek Recipes 

The quantity below serves 2 (generously) but you could easily scale up or scale down, as required.

65g salted butter, plus extra for greasing the dish

25g sourdough bread

40g soft brown sugar

70g marmalade, plus 2 tbsp for the glaze

40g plain flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 egg

small pinch sea salt

zest of one orange

cream or ice-cream to serve

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C and grease the base and sides of a small pudding dish.

Chop the bread into rough chunks, then blitz to crumbs in a food processor (if you don't have a food processor, Jess suggests grating the bread on a box grater). Add the remaining butter, sugar, marmalade, flour, baking powder, egg, salt and orange zest and pulse to combine (or use a wooden spoon if you're going the manual route).

Scrape the mixture into the prepared dish and bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and let cool slightly in the dish.

For the glaze, combine the 2 tbsp marmalade with 2 tbsp water in a small saucepan, and warm for 2-3 minutes over a high heat, until syrupy. Pour over the top of the pudding, leave for a minute or two to sink in, then serve up with plenty of cream/ice-cream.