The Best Malva Pudding
This Malva pudding recipe handed down to me by my aunt, delivers the most delicious, rich pudding drenched in syrup. This classic from South Africa is the ultimate warm, comforting dessert and is perfect served with custard and cream.
What is Malva pudding?
Malva pudding is a traditional South African dessert, very similar to British sticky toffee pudding in concept. A cake-like baked pudding drenched in sauce/syrup and served warm with custard or cream. This Malva Pudding Recipe is made with apricot jam/apricot preserves, white vinegar, sugar, flour and eggs with a sweet sauce is poured over the top the moment it comes out of the oven.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Butter.
- Sugar. I use granulated sugar but brown sugar can be used as substitute.
- Apricot jam/apricot preserves. I use smooth apricot jam but whole fruit jam can be used too.
- White vinegar.
- Flour.
- Milk.
- Eggs.
- Bicarbonate of soda/baking soda.
- Salt.
For the sauce
- Sugar.
- Golden Syrup.
- Vanilla extract.
- Butter.
How to make Malva pudding
- Prepare the pudding batter: Melt together the jam, butter, sugar and vinegar. Stir the dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl. Add the dry ingredients and milk to the butter mixture, alternating, until the mixture is smooth. Whisk in the eggs.
- Bake: Pour the batter into a greased baking dish then place in a preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Prepare the syrup: Combine all the syrup ingredients in a small saucepan then bring to a boil and simmer together for 5 minutes. Once the pudding comes out of the oven, pour over the sponge and allow to soak for 10 minutes.
- Serve: Serve the warm pudding with custard, cream or a scoop of ice cream.
Tips for the best Malva Pudding
- Ensure all the ingredients are at room temperature before making the batter.
- Don’t over-bake the pudding. It should be moist and tender.
- Pour the hot syrup over the pudding immediately as it comes out of the oven for maximum absorption.
- Using golden syrup in the sauce really enhances the flavor. Maple syrup or honey can be used as substitute.
Can you freeze Malva pudding?
Malva pudding freezes very well. Cool the baked pudding, wrap with foil and freeze for up to 3 months. Reheat from frozen for 30 minutes or until hot throughout then pour over extra syrup to make sure it’s super moist. Malva pudding can also be made in advance and kept in the fridge for up to a day in advance. Reheat before serving.
Video
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons smooth apricot jam/apricot preserves
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups milk
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda baking soda
- pinch of salt
for the syrup
- 1½ cups sugar
- ½ cup boiling water
- 4 tablespoons golden syrup you can also substitute maple syrup/honey
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- To make the pudding, pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F and grease a 30cm/11in baking dish.
- In a saucepan set over medium-high heat melt together the butter, sugar, apricot jam and vinegar until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes then pour into a large mixing bowl.
- Sift the dry ingredients together then add to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk, mixing well after each addition.
- Stir in the beaten eggs.
- Pour the batter into the prepared dish and place in the oven.
- Bake for 30 minutes until the pudding is dark brown and baked through (a skewer inserted should come out clean).
- While the pudding is baking, prepare the syrup.
- Bring all the syrup ingredients to a boil and reduce the heat. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Pour the syrup over the pudding as it comes out of the oven.
- Allow to stand for 20 minutes then serve with custard or cream.
Notes
- If you live in a colder climate, warming the milk slightly before adding to the batter will prevent the butter from seizing and hardening the batter (Thanks to a great comment by a reader who has lived in Alaska for this tip).
- If your batter does harden, gently microwave it for 10 seconds at a time and stir in between to soften the butter again without cooking the batter.
It looks like an Anglaise sauce – is it? Or did you just add cream to the sauce in the recipe? Thank you in advance for responding.
The sauce poured over the pudding is more of a syrup. I pour over custard to serve and just use a good quality store-bought custard for that.
This was indeed the BEST Malva Pudding I’ve ever made! I noticed some people are saying their butter/sugar mixture seized. I can almost guarantee it was because their milk was too cool, or cooler “room temperature”. Once they started mixing the milk into the batter, it re-hardened the butter. Just a tip: Warming the milk(for 10-15 seconds) in the microwave, will help avoid this. Especially in areas with colder kitchens. When I lived in Alaska, my “room temp” milk always hardened the melted butter, and it took me awhile to figure out what was going on. I just thought I would comment my observation, as this is a solid recipe, and any seizing or curdling of the batter, is not the recipe’s fault. Thank you for sharing. The addition of the Golden Syrup was brilliant, and this is now my go to recipe for this pudding.
Great insight, thanks Jennifer. I live in a warm climate so that’s not something I’ve ever really had to think about but I’ll add a note to the recipe card. I’m so pleased you love this recipe, it’s one of my faves.
This is really the best malva pudding out. Quick easy and very tasty. Receipt was easy to follow and makes you look like you know what you doing.
The sugar butter mixture went solid in my mixing bowl. I had to thrue everything away and start again following a different recipe
You are meant to start the pudding batter in a saucepan and melt all the ingredients together. All you needed to do was re-heat it in a saucepan and not in a mixing bowl and it would’ve melted again. You absolutely did not need to throw it away and next time, follow the instructions.
Thx u for sharing your delicious dishes pls advise if I can make malva pudding with out eggs
Thx u ❤️
I wouldn’t advise it – the eggs play a critical role in the finished result.
hi do you know how to save the batter after step 2? as your recipe wasn’t clear, my batter started seizing.
I’m so sorry that happened, it’s never happened to me before. It could be that your milk was very cold and hardened the butter? It should however start loosening with the addition of the rest of the milk.
Good recipies
Hi,
I tried this recipe twice, and both times the butter-sugar mixture began hardening immediately after taking off the stove. The first attempt, I added the flour then milk to the mixture back and forth, but the mixture solidified in many pieces throughout the batter. The second time I tried to keep the mixture warm over the stove, but after adding the flour and milk, the batter was too dry.
You should only melt the butter and sugar together, not let it cook. You most likely cooked it for too long and the mixture became a toffee rather than just melted butter and sugar.
THE best pudding ever! Baie dankie!
Hi, mine did not come out dark. I was just wondering how to get that dark color.
The baking soda helps to create a darker colour – it might be that your baking soda is a little older? It raises the pH level which accelerates the chemical reaction also known as the Maillard reaction.
The baking soda was brand new. Strange that it stayed a light color.
Hi, beginner baker here, I am making this for the first time for a work function so I am using the 3x option.
Regarding the butter, I just want to know why in the sponge recipe you say tablespoons butter but for the syrup you say cups? Is there a difference?
Also if I premake the sponge pudding, should I wait to add the syrup until after I reheat the sponge for the function, or add half after baking and the balance of the syrup after reheating?
Ps. Would love and appreciate an answer soon as I am making this, this afternoon for friday!🙏🫣😁
Hi Kelly – I am so sorry I’m only responding now. The sauce requires a full cup of butter while the sponge only needs a few tablespoons, that’s the only reason. I would pour over half of the syrup once the pudding is baked and reserve the rest for serving.
I’m very keen on making this recipe for my Australian family. I just want to check with you if the cup measurements you use are metric, or if they’re US cups (which are 240ml, not 250ml).
I use a 250ml measure 🙂
This is the best , tried it and now we have it every weekend .
Love it