Foolproof Vegan Self-Saucing Pudding for Beginners

Self-saucing puddings are lovely little cooking science experiments! The lighter batter rises to the top, but the liquid topping sinks to the bottom, resulting in a fudgy cake sitting a pool of thick sauce. How? Due to using boiling water that mixes with the dry ingredients, so it’s heavier than the airy sponge.

Easy vegan self-saucing pudding (Rainbow Nourishments) are simpler to make, by eliminating the boiling water part! You’ll need blackcurrant or other good conserve for this recipe.

Keep self-saucing puddings away from pets due to citrus, vanilla, coffee, chocolate, spices. 

Always keep lids on conserves and syrups, to avoid tempting insects like ants. And thoroughly rinse  jar/lids for the same reason, before recycling. 

For these recipes, use a good ice-cold vegan block butter with no palm oil (Flora and Myoko’s are good brands). 

Unless you have a food waste bin (made into biogas), it’s best to just bin citrus peel and coffee grounds, as acids could harm compost creatures.

If using tinned fruits, rinse/remove lids (or pop ring-pulls over holes) then step on the can to pinch the inner rims together, to avoid wildlife getting trapped at recycling points.

It’s important to pour the boiling water layer over the back of a spoon (so it doesn’t punch holes in the delicate batter), and to let the pudding sit for 10 minutes before serving, to let the hot runny sauce settle and thicken.

Chocolate is a popular flavour for self-saucing puddings, but there are many other varieties from mocha (chocolate and coffee) to fruity to caramel or toffee butterscatch. Serve with vegan vanilla ice-cream or custard.

Gingerbread self-saucing vegan pudding

Gingerbread self-saucing vegan pudding (Quite Good Food) is a nice recipe from New Zealand. It uses molasses (but if you find this too rich or don’t use it that much), you can just add more golden syrup.

Contains nutmeg, so keep well away from pets.

Self-saucing vegan banana pudding

Self-saucing vegan banana pudding (Full of Plants) uses oat flour and coconut sugar, so it’s gluten-free as well as delicious and gooey. This dessert is a great way of using up ripe spotted bananas, which are naturally sweeter.