This was based on a suggestion in an older Fannie Farmer, that one might use a gingerbread batter in place of the usual cottage pudding when making pandowdies and the like. I’d just made a regular pandowdy that had been good, but then I saw that Trader Joe’s was again offering their gingerbread mix…and I had some leftover chopped apple, and a request to bring dessert to a dinner party. Perfect!
- Yields: 9 generous servings, 16 small
- Difficulty: Easy
- Total: 1 1/2 hour
- Active: 30-40 minutes
Ingredients (7)
- 1 cup each chopped Fuji apple and Bosc pear, plus abt. 1/2 cup raisins
- 10 Tbs butter, divided
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 Tbs rum extract, or to taste
- 1 pkg Trader Joe’s Gingerbread Mix
- 1 large/extra large egg
- 3/4 cup water
Instructions
- Mix apple, pear and raisins with the rum extract. Preheat oven to 350º.
- Melt four Tbs of the butter in a 10″ skillet or Dutch oven. Spread fruit into butter, sprinkle brown sugar over evenly.
- Cook over low heat for 20-30 minutes, or until fruit is softened and butter/sugar is caramelizing.
- Melt remaining butter, keep warm. Beat egg and water together in batter bowl, add gingerbread mix, stir in butter, stir together until thoroughly mixed.
- If baking in the skillet, pour batter over fruit and place in center of oven. Alternatively, you can scrape the fruit mixture into a greased 8″ × 8″ baking pan and pour the batter over that.
- The moist fruit will lengthen the baking time considerably from the 30 minutes given on the box. Test for doneness after 40 minutes; if still gooey, give it ten more.
- When cake tests done, let it sit out until just warm. Run a table knife around the edges to make sure it’s free, then invert onto a plate or platter. Serve with whipped cream, ice cream (dulce de leche is good!) or just plain cream.
