It's Feijoa Season again! Part 1

We love feijoas! Well, Little Miss and I love feijoas. Thanks so much to our friend Catherine for the glorious box she delivered to our door, we are enjoying a glut of the glorious fruit. Just like the brussel sprout, the feijoa seems to attract either a love or hate reaction from its consumers. Little Miss will eat them all day long given half the chance, but she told me her school friends are very suspicious of her lunch box staple and consider them to smell funny. Her teacher told her she was a special girl for liking feijoas. Maybe she doesn't like them much either. 

Given our bounty, and its short shelf life, we have been pulling out all the feijoa possibilities this week.

Sticky Date and Feijoa Pudding with Caramel Sauce

200g pitted dates 
1 cup water
1 teaspoon baking soda
125 butter
1/2 cup dark cane sugar
1 x 395g can of condensed milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
6 feijoas - don't peel and chop them until the remainder of the mixture is ready as they brown quickly.

Caramel Sauce

30g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
300ml cream

Preheat the oven to 180deg. C and grease a large oven dish.

Combine the dates and water in a saucepan and cook until pulpy. Remove from the heat and add the soda. It will fluff up a bit, then settle back down. 

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

Add the condensed milk and beat again. 

Then beat in the eggs, one at a time. 

Peel and chop the feijoas. 

They turn brown quickly once exposed to the air, so stir them into the mixture as soon as they are prepared. 

Fold the dates into the feijoa mixture, followed by the sifted flour and baking powder. 

Place the pudding batter into the large greased oven dish and bake for approximately 45 minutes. 

My dish was a little small as the following picture will demonstrate!







While the pudding is baking make the sauce: combine the butter, sugar and cream in a small pot and summer for 10 minutes, taking care not to let it catch on the bottom of the pot. Set aside until the pudding is cooked.

This is a delicious pudding that serves 6 to 8 diners depending on the generosity of the serving size.