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Butterscotch Pudding & Whisky Sauce

This special pud from chef Matt Tebbutt is so good it was olive's recipe of the month - one mouthful and you'll see why

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and whisky match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 135 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 6
Prep20 min
Cook55 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Butter a medium pudding basin well. Warm the 300ml milk with the split vanilla pod in a small pan, then leave it to infuse off the heat for 10 minutes. Scrape the seeds from the pod into the milk and discard the pod.

  2. Beat the 50g unsalted butter and 60g light brown sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

  3. Sift the 225g self-raising flour, 2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of bicarbonate of soda together. Fold into the creamed mixture alternately with the vanilla milk, keeping the batter smooth.

  4. Fold in the chopped prunes and chopped walnuts. Spoon the batter into the prepared basin and cover tightly with buttered foil or a lid.

  5. Set the basin in a large pan with boiling water coming halfway up its sides. Cover and steam gently over a simmer for about 50 minutes, topping up with boiling water as needed, until a skewer comes out clean and the sponge is set through.

  6. Meanwhile, melt the 85g salted butter and 85g muscovado sugar in a pan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Pour in the 200ml double cream and simmer gently for 3 minutes.

  7. Take the sauce off the heat and stir in whisky to taste.

  8. Turn the pudding out onto a warm plate, pour over some of the sauce and serve with the remaining sauce and clotted cream.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Vanilla + whiskytop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Vanilla + milktop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Vanilla + sugartop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Vanilla and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, vanilla, sugar, flour, egg, milk, cream):

  1. Almondbetter flavor fit
  2. Cocoabetter flavor fit
  3. Pecansbetter flavor fit
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vanilla, sugar, flour, egg, milk, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).