Revealed: Saga Magazine readers’ favourite puddings

Steaming sponge puddings topped with custard, crumbles covered with melting vanilla ice cream or a wobbling trifle resplendent with hundreds and thousands. 

The Great British pudding is as traditional as a stiff upper lip or a cup of tea in a crisis. 

But it turns out that our national treasures could be under threat, with English Heritage revealing that just 2% of households now make a daily homemade pud, and 62% of us rarely or never make them at all. 

So, have we really lost our taste for puddings? Spurred on by the news, we asked more than 600,000 Saga Magazine newsletter subscribers to tell us their favourite desserts – and you held up your spoons to be counted.  

Saga Magazine readers’ favourite pudding

When the scores were totalled, there was a clear winner.  

Apple crumble is your favourite pudding, with more than 12% of the total votes cast.  

The humble crumble is said to have originated during the Second World War as a more simple alternative to pastry during rationing. 

And we’ve kept on baking it ever since, turning a combination of fruit, flour, butter and sugar into the perfect finale to a meal. 

In fact, crumbles took the two top spots in our vote, with rhubarb crumble coming second with 9% of the vote. 

Third place was another traditional favourite, bread-and-butter pudding, with 8.7% of you voting for this.

It’s said that this frugal pudding, a delicious way of using up stale bread, originated in the 11th century. Even Henry VIII enjoyed a pudding called Aleberry, which was a more liquid version containing ale, stale bread and sugar.

In fourth place was the Cumbrian classic, sticky toffee pudding. The combination of sponge and toffee sauce is said to have originated in the Lake District – although Yorkshire and even Canada have also laid a claim to it.

Your top ten puddings

1. Apple crumble
2. Rhubarb crumble 
3. Bread-and-butter pudding 
4. Sticky toffee pudding
5. Lemon meringue pie 
6. Trifle 
7. Apple pie 
8. Eton mess 
9. Tiramisu
10. Treacle sponge 

James Martin on our favourite puddings

We asked Saga Magazine readers’ favourite celebrity chef James Martin if he was surprised by the winning puds. 

“Not at all,” he said. “Because they are my favourites as well.” 

So, does he have any tips for cooking these popular puddings? 

“The apple crumble needs to be cooked from raw,” Martin explained. “Too many times, chefs stew the apple, put the crumble on top, then bake it, and it’s never going to be the same. 

“It’s the same with rhubarb. You’ve got to chop it up, mix it with sugar, put it in the dish, add the crumble mixture over the top and bake it from raw. It’s miles better.” 

As for bread-and-butter pudding, Martin loves that too. “That’s one of my favourites as well,” he said. “I make one with white chocolate, croissants and whisky.

“Then there's sticky toffee pudding. These aren’t just popular at home, they're popular in the restaurants too.

“But I don’t like it when chefs start deconstructing a pudding and reconstructing it, and all that kind of stuff. It’s done that way for a reason, so leave it alone.”