Golden Syrup Dumplings

There’s that bit in Jerry Maguire - I haven’t seen the film (Tom Cruise Phobic) but it’s a very famous scene - where he launches into some romantic spiel and Rene Zellwegger goes all misty eyed and says “You had me at Hello”. Well, this could be my equivalent – this recipe had me at “Golden Syrup Dumplings”.

This is a clever recipe because from start to finish they are made on the hob. No baking at all. You spoon dessert spoonfuls of the raw dumpling mix into the syrup where they simmer and puff up to more than double their size. I’m not going to lie, these are very sweet and sticky but utterly delicious. If you’re looking for the ultimate comfort food these would be a good place to start!


I apologise that the photos for these aren’t up to the usual quality but I made them for dessert at a dinner party and neither my guests nor I could wait to eat them! I served them with ice cream but custard would work too. They are a very impressive dessert for little effort.


I admit that these are very sweet and most likely bad for you, but the one thing they are not is stodgy or doughy. This photo nicely shows the lightness of the dumpling – you can see all the air in the mix:


Ingredients:
For the dumplings (I got 8 dessert spoonfuls from this mix)
185g self raising flour
30g unsalted butter
115g golden syrup
80ml milk (whole or semi-skimmed, skimmed won’t work)

For the sauce
30g unsalted butter
165g light brown sugar
175g golden syrup
410ml water

How to make:
- Start by making the dumplings; rub the butter into the flour then gradually stir in the golden syrup and milk. You’ll end up with a stiff cake batter.
- Make the sauce by combining all the ingredients in a medium saucepan.
- Stir over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves, then bring the sauce to the boil.
- Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Drop rounded dessert spoonfuls (or tablespoons) of the dumpling mixture into the simmering sauce.
- Cover and simmer for approximately 20 minutes. The dumplings will puff up and look lovely. After about 15 minutes I turned them over to ensure they were completely covered in sauce.
- Serve with ice cream or custard.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.