What can be more comforting than a rich and comforting steamed pudding on a cold winter's night? Today's sweet citrus dessert is absolutely perfect for winter entertaining and family fun.

This dessert's rather special flavour combination of orange and golden syrup makes it a perfect companion for warm, sweet custard in winter and on warmer days it also tastes a treat with ice cream.

One of the reasons we love it is because it's an uncomplicated, inexpensive dessert that is quickly put together and then shoved into the oven for 90 minutes - and that's it.

I think it should be law that every restaurant in the world should have at least one baked pudding on its dessert menu in winter. In  fact, I knew a young lady in London long ago who used to go to a restaurant twice  a week in winter and her entire meal was made up of two desserts… and no, she didn't have a body shaped like the Michelin man either!

To serve four portions of this tasty orange steamed pudding you need:

Ingredients

1 pinch of salt

1 large juicy orange

45ml golden syrup (you can substitute with honey if you like)

130g butter

175g self-raising flour

2 eggs, beaten

90 g loose brown sugar

20ml milk

Juice of ½ orange

Method

Grate the orange rind and set aside.

Peel the orange and break into segments.

Spoon syrup into a 1 litre baking dish and place the orange segments on the syrup.

In bowl, whisk the butter and sugar together and add the orange rind, then the eggs and whisk again.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, orange juice and milk together well, add it to the butter mixture and then pour the lot over the orange segments.

Cover the baking dish with wax paper and tie securely.

Place the covered dish over a pot of bubbling water and steam for about 90 minutes or until the pudding is cooked through.

Remove pudding, let it cool enough to handle then turn it out on a serving dish.

Serve with cream, custard or ice cream.

This dessert is best served warm or at room temperature.