Pear and Carob Pudding

We were due to catch up with some friends last Sunday afternoon as we hadn't seen them for a while. I was in the mood for some baking and as their little boy had just turned 1 I thought I would bake something to share.

I knew my friend was on a restricted diet due to the birthday boy’s allergy to dairy and salicylates, so I sent a quick message to find out a few things they could eat.

With my newly acquired list of ‘okays’ (which included pealed pears and carob) I went on the hunt for an adaptable recipe. I found a recipe, originally by Nigella Lawson, which looked like it would do the trick.

You will need:
Tinned pears, drained
125g plain flour (I used 90g plain, 35g whole wheat flour)
125g dark brown sugar
25g light carob powder
150g Original Nuttelex
2 tsp No Egg
4 Tbsp water
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate soda
2 tsp soy milk
(I also added a bit extra water and soymilk, a teaspoon or so of each)

Lightly grease a 20 cm baking tin. (I used 4 low-ball glass tumblers)
Preheat oven to 200C.
Lay the tinned pears on the bottom of your tin, glasses or ramekins.
Place all other ingredients into a food processor and blitz until you get a soft dropping mixture.
Gently spread the batter over the pears and bake for 30 minutes (or less if baking individual serves) I baked my 4 tumblers for about 15 minutes.


The original recipe called for a chocolate sauce made from dark chocolate, cream and a little coffee. This got me stumped as I wasn’t sure how to adapt this into something edible for my friend. However, while driving to their place I decided to attempt a sweet béchamel sauce using Nuttelex, plain flour and soymilk with carob powder and brown sugar.

The puddings turned out to be a great success and were very rich (which I think is the result of any Nigella recipe). There will definitely be a next time for this one, though I think I’ll use more pear and maybe make the sauce a little thinner or try leaving the carob out.

Hello friends; and Happy Birthday little man!