is home baking cheaper?

chickadee

We always had puddings too, although my family was far from well off. We had rice pudding which I always remember having a skin on top. Also we had home made custard pie (delicious!) You can also make jelly with fruit so the children also get some fresh fruit. Fruit flans made with cheapo sponge flan cases are easy and look impressive too. If you like cakes, gingerbread is easy and can be used warm with custard or cold as a cake. If you have left-over pastry (or make a little more than you need deliberately), roll it out, spread the middle with currants or sultanas, sprinkle with sugar, fold the edges in and wet them to seal the fruit in, then roll it out gently. Bake to make a Chorley cake, or fly pie as I called it when I was young. I love this.

Hope there are some ideas there for you.

moggins

Yep, I do the microwave sponge pudding too, costs pennies to make and 6 minutes to bake in the microwave - how easy is that? Got to have custard with it though

Magentasue

Cheap puddings that are easy to bake:

Rice pudding - I use 4pints milk for six of us but we're greedy
Bread and butter pudding
Apple crumble
Chocolate brownies
Home made yogurt

Generally, baking is easier with plain flour! Any recipes that use self raising flour (like cakes) you need to get the mix in the oven quickly and know how accurate your oven temp is. Crumbles and brownies are more forgiving in my opinion.

Magentasue

Oh yeah, agree with what people say about healthier. If you use butter and cream you might not save money but you'll know your puddings are additive free. Also they will be more filling because they won't be pumped full of air.

Chipps

This is a really cheap & easy pudding recipe from an American recipe book called "More with Less" The measurements are american cups, which is the 8oz mark on any measuring jug.

Quick Fruit Cobbler
Crust begins on the bottom & ends up on the top. Consistency of cobbler varies depending on variety of fruit and amount of juice, but still tastes delicious.
Preheat oven to 180 C
Combine in bowl
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pour into 9x 9 inch greased baking pan
Add
2 cups fruit - fresh, frozen or canned
Bake for 40 minutes

I use self raising flour, & don't bother with the baking powder. Also, I am not too fussy about the size of the pan, in fact usually do it in an oval pyrex dish.
It is not obvious that the ingredients of the cake bit are as simple as they are. I made it yesterday for dessert using a large tin of fruit salad. It was really nice.

black-saturn

I might make that tomorrow when I have a tin of fruit and my new oven installed

overdrawn

hi thankyou to all who replied-you've all given me some great ideas. yes,they do have a pudding virtually every day,but only cos i was bought up that way!! also,it tends to stop them coming back an hour after tea still hungry !!!
thanks again-couldn't see any thanks buttons tho !!!!!!!!!

black-saturn

Its in the bottom right hand corner of the posts next to the 'quote' button

Chipps

I might make that tomorrow when I have a tin of fruit and my new oven installed

We just had the 2nd half of it for pudding today, reheated & with custard.

summerday

We always had puddings when I was a child too, even though we weren't well off. We had fruit crumbles, rice pud, banana and custard (with the over ripe bananas just sliced into custard, yum), semolina made up from the basic powder, and blancmange.