Sticky ginger and rhubarb pudding with rice milk custard

Rhubarb and custard

Sticky ginger and rhubarb pudding with rice milk custard

Rhubarb and custard is a combination which you either love or hate. As a lover of sour as well as sweet, rhubarb conjures up fond childhood memories of rhubarb crumble with lashings of custard. Now that I am supposedly more grown-up I decided to try something a little bit different. Since tartness is not to everyone’s liking I decided to try to incorporate rhubarb into a pudding with ginger to compliment the flavours. 

Alas, making custard with rice milk is fraught with problems due to the thinness of the rice milk. Hence I decided upon using custard powder as a way around this problem.

Rhubarb

Ingredients:

6 tbsp of the syrup from stem ginger in syrup

2 pieces stem ginger in syrup

400g rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 2.5cm lengths

2 tbsp caster sugar

90g caster sugar

150g dairy free margarine

2 large eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

175g gluten-free self-raising flour

250ml rice milk plus a little extra

2 tbsp custard powder

1 tbsp caster sugar

In a large pan over a medium heat, place the rhubarb, 2 tablespoons of ginger syrup and 2 tablespoons of caster sugar. Stir occasionally until the rhubarb begins to soften and bubble. Reduce the heat to low and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes, remembering to stir to avoid the rhubarb catching. Leave to cool.

Rhubarb puree

Meanwhile, prepare the sponge mixture. Dice the ginger finely.

Stem ginger

In a large mixing bowl, beat the remaining sugar and margarine together until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and then fold in the flour, chopped ginger, cooled rhubarb and vanilla. 

Chopped!

Grease a pudding basin and then add 4 tablespoons of ginger syrup into the base. Pour the mix into the prepared pudding basin then pop into the oven for 45 minutes until golden brown on top. Leave in the basin for 10 minutes before popping out. 

Not great looking...

In the meantime prepare the custard. Pour the milk into a saucepan and over a medium heat bring to almost boiling point. Mix the custard powder, 1 tablespoon of sugar in a cup with enough milk to cover the custard powder and mix until all the lumps have gone. When the milk is just about to reach boiling point, pour in the custard paste and continually mix together to avoid lumps. Continue to mix until the custard has thickened.

Serve slices of the pudding with the custard. This pudding actually tastes better the next day after the ginger and rhubarb have has time to infuse fully. 

...but tastes heavenly!

So, are you a fan of rhubarb and custard?