Railway Pudding – Railway Pudding is an old British recipe for a simple batter and jam pudding, which orginated from railway station cafes.
An Easy and Historic British Pudding Recipe
I first came across today’s recipe for Railway Pudding many years ago, in the railway cafe on Malton train station.
It was served piping hot with lashings of custard, and certainly filled the hunger gap before travelling onwards to Leeds.
I remember it being very light and oozing with jam, raspberry I think and I loved that it was called Railway Pudding!
Moving on several years, I discovered the recipe in one of my vintage cook books, and was fascinated to learn that it was regular fodder at many railway station cafes.
There is a recipe in The Liverpool School of Cookery Recipe Book (1911), which is part of the canon of first cook books for young housewives, and students learning to cook.
But back to the recipe – they all tend to be much of a muchness, a simple batter style pudding cake, which is filled with jam and rolled like a swiss roll.
I made this last weekend and we all LOVED it – it is indeed light and airy, as I suspected, with the sweetenss of jam which marries so well with hot, creamy custard.
There are very few ingredients in it, just flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, milk and jam of course.
It is wonderful served hot OR cold, and is easily heated up in the microwave, which I did for afters the next day.
I made this with strawberry jam last time I served this, but I will use raspberry jam next time, which seems to be the preferred jam as in the old recipes.
You can either roll this, as is suggested in some recipes, but it will crack (which didn’t bother me), or cut it in half and sandwich it with the jam, as other recipes suggest.
I will definately make this again, as it was such an easy dessert to make, and it was really delicious.
I hope you like it as much as we did, if you make it – please do let me know in the comments below, Karen
More Pudding Recipes
Culinary Notes and Tips
- You can also use stewed fruit such as apples, rhubarb or gooseberrries in place of jam.
- You can either roll this, as is suggested in some recipes, or cut it in half and sandwich it with the jam, as other recipes suggest.
- Lovely handwritten recipe is here: Grandma Abson’s Railway Pudding
- And more railway recipes here: Lesser known railway recipes
More Pudding Recipes
- Apple In and Out (Baked Suet Apple Pudding)
- Rhubarb & Strawberry Pudding Cake
- Traditional Bread Pudding
- Rhubarb Stirabout – An Old-Fashioned Pudding
- Eve’s Pudding with Blackberries & Apples
- Traditional Baked Rhubarb Charlotte
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Railway Pudding Recipe
Railway Pudding
I first came across today's recipe for Railway Pudding many years ago, in the railway cafe on Malton train station.
It was served piping hot with lashings of custard, and certainly filled the hunger gap before travelling onwards to Leeds.
I remember it being very light and oozing with jam, raspberry I think and I loved that it was called Railway Pudding!
Moving on several years, I discovered the recipe in one of my vintage cook books, and was fascinated to learn that it was regular fodder at many railway station cafes.
There is a recipe in The Liverpool School of Cookery Recipe Book (1911), which is part of the canon of first cook cooks for young housewives, and students learning to cook.
But back to the recipe - they all tend to be much of a muchness, a simple batter style pudding cake, which is filled with jam and rolled like a swiss roll.
I made this last weekend and we all LOVED it - it is indeed light and airy, as I suspected, with the sweetenss of jam which marries so well with hot, creamy custard.
There are very few ingredients in it, just flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, milk and jam of course.
It is wonderful served hot OR cold, and is easily heated up in the microwave, which I did for afters the next day.
I made this with strawberry jam last time I served this, but I will use raspberry jam next time, which seems to be the preferred jam as in the old recipes.
You can either roll this, as is suggested in some recipes, but it will crack (which didn't bother me), or cut it in half and sandwich it with the jam, as other recipes suggest.
I will definately make this again, as it was such an easy dessert to make, and it was really delicious.
I hope you like it as much as we did, if you make it - please do let me know in the comments below, Karen
Karen
Ingredients
- 4 ounces (110g) plain flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 ounces (75g) sugar
- 4 fluid ounces (120ml) milk
- 2 eggs, beaten with the milk
- Jam, strawberry or raspberry
- Caster sugar, to sprinkle
Instructions
- Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar together.
- Add the milk and beaten eggs to the flour mixture.
- Mix them all togther well. You should have have a thick batter consistency.
- Pour into a greased Yorkshire Pudding tin - a roasting tin, or a Swiss Roll tin, as in a rectangle shape.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven 190C/180C Fan/375F/Gas mark 5 for 20 minutes, or until it has risen and is a light to medium golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and turn it out onto a board or a plate.
- Spread the jam over it and then roll it up like a Swiss Roll.
- Cut into slices to serve withy custard, cream or whole milk.
Notes
You can also use stewed fruit such as apples, rhubarb or gooseberrries in place of jam.
You can either roll this, as is suggested in some recipes, or cut it in half and sandwich it with the jam, as other recipes suggest.
Nutrition Information
Yield 6 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 232Total Fat 5gSaturated Fat 3gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 75mgSodium 312mgCarbohydrates 37gFiber 1gSugar 14gProtein 10g
Original Recipe from the Liverpool School of Cookery Recipe Book (1911)
Railway Pudding
From the Liverpool School of Cookery Recipe Book (1911), apparently produced after ‘constant requests’ for a book of recipes used at the School. The book was described as being “most valuable to young housekeepers, containing recipes most needed under all conditions and circumstances of everyday life”.
- 1 teacupful of flour
- 1 oz. of butter
- ¾ teacupful of sugar
- ½ teacupful milk
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ teaspoonfuls baking powder
- pinch of salt.
Preparation and Cooking – Put flour, sugar and salt into a bowl, beat up the egg, add it to the flour stirring all the time, mix with sufficient milk to make a batter, add 1 oz. (melted) butter stirring in baking powder, pour into a well greased tin, bake for 20 minutes in a sharp oven , when done, cut in two and spread a little jam between, cut in strips and sift sugar over. Cost 5d.
Annabel Ladbury says
Unfortunately this was not a success – very rubbery texture… any advice?
Karen Burns-Booth says
It is classed as a Batter Pudding, similar to Yorkshire Pudding – not sure why yours was rubbery, as ours was very light. The recipe is very old too, so maybe not to our modern tastes in cake or pudding?