EPIC Pud Inn in the Park

23 September 2014

It was the hottest ticket in town: a meal of five courses, all of them pudding and designed to sweet-talk Sheffield’s foodies and raise hundreds of pounds for the Master Cutler’s Challenge 2014.

On Saturday 13th September we took 30 pudding lovers off to the park for a sweet afternoon being proper Yorkshire and connecting with our community and roots. Pud Inn in the Park rounded off a six-month fundraising push with myself and Endcliffe’s boss, Ashley Charlesworth (an epic fun-raising partner he was too). Our September’s Pud Club had a Yorkshire theme, with desserts contributed by the Rutland Arms, Silversmiths, CakeLicious and PJ Taste, as well as Endcliffe Park Café.

Planning a Yorkshire Pud Inn Club was interesting. I really wanted it to be a little different and whimsical. If you asked us what a Yorkshire puddings table should look like, there needs to be lots of butter, sugar, cream, tea, it needs to be homemade and look like it’s on display at a local produce show. Which is why I chose to hold this season’s club in the park, in a fantastic marquee tent (thank you Totally Gazeboed), and encouraging diners to dig out the old recipe books and inspired a bake off of our own.

Lining up the Puddings
First course was Peter from PJ taste with his grand (traditional) dessert of Liquorice, rhubarb and ginger pudding with a PJ taste twist of course. Peter shares with us a little about his pudding course – “The pud I chose had local and Yorkshire themes: Yorkshire rhubarb from my allotment, a liquorice panna cotta – liquorice was grown in Pontefract which is still famous for it and my liquorice was made by Bassett’s Sheffield but bought from Granellis! I made a ginger biscuit, ginger’s quite a Yorkshire spice – Parkin and ginger beer. The term use was a P I for Pud Inn made from local blackberry and apple fruit leather and a 2004 Sheffield hazelnut on a chocolate and popping candy stick! I’m not sure what I would have done differently other than not commit the ultimate chef sin ad – I didn’t taste the dish! So not sure if the jelly and panna cotta was over set but he says diners will have to be the judge of that!” – thank you peter, your course seemed perfectly fine to us, like always!

Comments from diner’s score sheets included:

• The popping candy was a nice touch, pleasantly mild flavour
• Loved the liquorice bit best and the crackle chocolate and leather
• It was a great experience finding all the different ‘hidden’ flavours
• Experimental – nice, sophisticated flavours, expected it to be a lighter pudding. Imaginative.
• Loved the liquorice and toppings. The Rhubarb needed a bit more bite.

Next up was CakeLicious, a fantastic pastry counter serving delicious looking assorted tarts and Chinese desserts found in The Moor Markets. Chris from CakeLicious says he chose to share their popular Portuguese tarts because he knew everyone like them, “I receive very good feedback whenever I sell them at the Sharrow Vale Market, Sheffield Food Festival and from customers at the Moor Market.”

Next up was Chef Lee from Silversmith’s version of The Richmond Maids of Honour – a dessert supposedly favoured by Henry VIII and have been the star attraction of a Richmond tea house for nearly 200 years! Well, Chef Lee was certainly going to make sure his version of the little puffed pastry tarts were going to be the star of attention at Pud Inn!

Comments from diners included:

• A great mix of desserts in one. Very well presented, enjoyed it. Lots of work put into making this course –great effort!
• Great combination of textures and flavours, a rich experience
• WOW!! A bit of everything
• Keep it simple – less is more. LOVED the honeycomb and fruit though
• All components were very tasty but some blended better than others

Next up, course four were the EPIC Yorkshire Pleasure Domes made by Endcliffe Park Café’s Chef Arie Sullivan. I won’t even begin understanding how they got all that goodness inside the dark chocolate dome and then spray tanned it in gold with all the crunchy (toffee) trimmings – I’ll let it be their secret. I WILL devour it again! The raspberries and cream complemented the chocolate nicely, not too overly sweet and the best part about it was cracking the dome to reveal the filling inside. A truly epic pud!

Comments from diners included:

• Great, unique presentation. The chocolate dome was so yummy mixed with toffee pieces – it was all lovely. A great effort!!
• Tasted as good as it looked! Brilliant presentation. The raspberry bit was my favourite
• Awesome presentation and tasted as good as it looked!
• I need a lie down now!!
• Looked EPIC! tasted boozy. Hic hic

The final fifth course was the Rutland’s Chef Mike’s Yorkshire Curd Tart. Mike’s curd tart was also filled with currants and egg, making this a delightful afternoon treat.

Comments from diners included:

• Lovely presentation, straight up favourite!
• Nice flavours. Liked the raisins
• Lovely pastry and very delicately flavoured curd
• A fantastic curd tart, fabulous as always!
• Lovely sweet pastry, yummy curd tart. Not too much fruit, really enjoyed it. Well done! :)

A big thank you to all our pudding makers for the day’s awesome desserts – plus, not forgetting Endcliffe Park Cafe and their team for being a top notch venue to hold Pud Inn. On another sweet note, last week we also won the BEST INNOVATIVE AWARD for Pud Inn in the Park at The Master Cutlers Challenge Awards bash held at Sheffield’s Whirlow Hall Farm. I was smiling all weekend – it’s a great feeling to be recognised and shows how hard work does pay off – (see above) Ashley proudly poses with our award on the night :)

I’ll be planning our next Pud Inn gathering soon, planned for Christmas and hope you will be able to join me for that.

{All photos courtesy of all our lovely diners – Carol Greene, Tracey Howe, Mandy Jordan, Keith Donegan, Ashley Charlesworth and Dan Sumption. Thank you for sharing your Pud Inn snaps – there are more photographs of the event on our facebook page, see below} – Missie Cindz x

Missie Cindz