Sometimes, with the best will in the world, recipes go wrong. Especially if you make them up. But often just because they don’t turn into what you wanted them to doesn’t mean they can’t be something else.
So on Saturday, when I was intending to make baked fruit bars and it turned into a vegan sponge and fruit pudding I wasn’t too upset.
Let’s start with the fruit bit because that cannot go wrong and in many ways is a dessert in itself if served with tofu ice cream or soy yoghurt.
You can use any fruit you like but I used a 12oz /350g mix of blackberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants because that’s what I had in my organic box. You can use chopped apples, pears, peaches or plums, strawberries, gooseberries… oh you get the message!
Add to the fruit 3 tablespoons of cornflour, 3 tablespoons of water and 5 tablespoons of sugar and simmer until it becomes soft and mushy.
Delicious!
Now put that to one side for a little while if you can bear it and make some vegan sponge.
This sponge isn’t a soft airy one. It’s more of a crispy sponge batter. Like baby rusks. Or trifle sponges. But nicer. Much nicer (I’m not really selling this recipe am I?).
Mix together 8oz/425g self raising flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 6oz/175g sugar in a bowl.
In a jug mix 4floz/125ml sunflower oil with about 3 tablespoons of soy or rice milk and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Slowly mix the wet ingredients with the dry until you get a thick batter.
Pour about half the batter into a greased and lined baking tray. Remember your cooked fruit? Get them now and pour them on top.
Then pour the rest of the batter on top of that and bake at 180*C/350*F/Gas Mark 4 for 40 minutes. (Tip: put a second baking tray or dish underneath to catch fruity drips so you don’t have to clean them out of the bottom of your oven. )
Now, here’s the problem. The top was fantastic and crispy, the fruit middle was delicious and sticky and sweet but the bottom layer was kind of soggy. So how to rectify that? Here’s what I suggest.
Instead of cooking it in a baking tray, cook in a pudding dish or basin. Place the fruit at the bottom of the basin and layer the batter on top and then bake for 40 minutes. You should get hot sticky fruit and crispy batter and nothing soggy in sight. However, I haven’t tried that out yet so if it goes horribly wrong it’s not entirely my fault OK?! 
So readers, tell me about your experiences of when recipes go bad!!!!
