These mini puddings are perfect to whip up last minute and cook in the microwave. We ate them with ice cream but they’d be fab with custard too. You can use any jam you like, but I always think cherries and almond are a winning combination. Shame we didn’t have any cherry jam in the house!

The puddings are quite rich so you can easily make this recipe stretch to 4 people (especially if two of you are small people!) You could also make it in a 1 pint microwaveable pudding basin and divide it into portions when it is cooked – you may need to adjust cooking times if you do this.

Ingredients

75g butter (I use Stork baking spread)

75g caster sugar

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 egg

25g ground almonds

50g self raising flour

your favourite jam

You will need to:

  1. Grease 4 ramekin dishes or a 1 pint pudding basin – they need to be suitable for microwave cooking
  2. Cream together the butter and sugar with a knife or wooden spoon (if you have a food mixer you can chuck all the ingredients in at once and mix for a minute)
  3. Add the almond extract, egg, ground almonds and sifted flour
  4. Mix until the ingredients are well combined
  5. Put a teaspoonful of jam in the bottom of each ramekin then divide the mixture between the dishes
  6. Cook in the microwave, 2 puddings at a time, for about 3-4 minutes. The cooking time will vary wildly depending on your microwave so it’s best to do it in short bursts until they are cooked through
  7. Loosen with a knife and turn out into bowls
  8. Serve with ice cream, custard, cream or enjoy them naked (the puddings, not you – although…)