Sticky Toffee Pudding

Until last night I was a virgin.

A sticky toffee pudding virgin.



You Brits sit there, mouths agape, shocked to imagine that someone has not tasted the sweet goodness of your native pudding.

I’d always wanted to taste the treat, based on the appeal of its name…

Sticky

Toffee

Pudding

Each word sounds delicious on its own but combine all three together and oh my!

The shameless pudding lured me from the bakery window…"Eat Me" it whispered.

You know how it is.



I succumbed. Gleefully. Sinfully. Savouring every morsel.

And now I’m hooked.

Just like you Brits hooked me on HobNobs.

Whilst doing a little research on the pudding, I discovered that sticky toffee pudding has been in existence less than 40 years.

Apparently, it was first created in the 1970s by the late restaurateur Francis Coulson, at the Sharrow Bay Hotel in Cumbria, England.

However, chef Simon Hopkinson claims here that the recipe may have existed previously in Lancashire AND, wait for it… it’s origins may have been in CANADA!

Controversy aside, I must recreate the recipe. Because at $5 Canadian (that’s 2.6 British Pounds or 4.2 US Dollars) I refuse to shell out that kind of money each time I get a craving.

No, don’t tell me to buy the tinned stuff…



Send me your best recipe.

I found this recipe on the BBC website but with so many options, I don’t know if it’s the one I should try.





Is STP best on its own or served with whipped cream, clotted cream or ice cream?

Is it best served hot or room temperature?

And which beverage is the perfect accompaniment?

And finally…

Tell me your own sticky toffee pudding memories.

Hurry bitches, I have needs!

Results of the British Biscuit Trial

It’s not been all fun in the sun with me, you know. I’ve been busy putting your British biccies to the test.

Without going far afield, I tracked down both McVitie's HobNobs and McVitie's Ginger Nuts in my neighbourhood.

Both biscuits proved excellent dunkers. They withstood crumbling and distentegrating in both tea and milk. A couple of “tough cookies” you might say.

The ginger nuts became even more gingery when immersed in tea and the HobNobs even oatier.

One drawback, however, was that the tea took on a ginger flavour following the ginger nut dunking.

I’m gloating over the fact that I’ve mastered the art of the dunk. Just a few seconds of immersion does the trick. No lingering! The biccies held their shape yet still maintained a slight crunch following dunking. And not a single crumb of residue left over in the cup.

Just when I was reveling in my newly acquired dunking skill, I read that a tearoom in Brighton has outlawed biscuit dunking. If you dunk your biscuit, you’ll be invited to leave the establishment. The tearoom owner is nothing short of a tea Nazi! He said: "People have to obey the rules and if not they are asked to leave. It is the art of tea drinking - this is not going to Starbucks with a mug of coffee."



Left to right: HobNob and Ginger Nut.


Which biscuit did I prefer? In the final crunch, I’ll be purchasing more packets of HobNobs and sharing them with other ignorant Canucks to show them what they’re missing out on over here.

In future, I’ll have to make a sidetrip to the British specialty shops to find any other kind of British biccies as this was all my neighbourhood had to offer.

Thanks, all of you, for your biccie suggestions from last week. It’s been a treat.

Pick Me A Biccie

HobNobs, Penguins, Tunnocks Tea Cakes.

They’re common in the UK but what about here in Canada? Either we can order UK biscuits online or overpay at British specialty shops.

So I want you to pick me a biccie. Many of them I haven’t tried including the few listed above so I have no idea which biscuits are worth shelling out for.

Tell me your fave and I’ll give it a trial chew.

Taste test results to follow in the weeks to come after purchase.



Note: Spelling corrected from “bikkies” to “biccies” to appease the pedants.

Spotted Dick

Spotted Dick. What is this shite, anyway?

You Brits will put anything in your mouths, won’t you?

Mr. Brain’s Pork Faggots

Mr. Brain’s Pork Faggots.

Pork faggots are meatballs containing pork liver and onions and served in sauce. Mr. Brain’s Pork Faggots lists the following ingredients:

Water, Pork 11% (Pork Liver, Pork), Pork Rind, Rusk, Onion, Wheatflour, Lard, Salt, Modified Waxy Maize Starch, Tomato Purée, Flavourings, Colour (E150c), Sugar, Herbs, Spices

100 million faggots are eaten in the UK every year!

Cheesy Wotsits Crime

Don’t litter in Luton.

A woman has been fined £75 for throwing a Cheesy Wotsit out the car window.