I am a sucker for anything deep fried and covered in sugar. Extra bonus points for a gooey centre too. So when the Pudding Stop advertised their cinnamon buns and I realised that we now only live 12 minutes away from their St Albans store, i was like a bullet out of a gun to get there.
The Pudding Stop are "obsessed" with making the best puddings so it seems unfair to just review them for one item, so I dutifully also purchased a cruffin, a lemon meringue pie, a doughnut, a sticky toffee pudding, a crumble, a cookie bake and a molten chocolate pudding. I suppose I could be persuaded to share them with J.....just for a fair review I guess!
Their store is perfectly decked out for Covid. The entire operations from the baking to the presentation, to the serving is all behind a screen. In fact, it's fab to just stand and watch the bakers at work making everything fresh on site! Once I ordered, my treats were passed under a hatch in the counter to avoid any contact. How fancy! It felt like I was in a spaceship canteen!
We started with the cinnamon bun because I. Just. Couldn't. Wait. If you're imagining a swirly doughy sticky bun, stop it. This was more like a swirled croissant; a laminated dough baked and then deep fried and dipped in cinnamon sugar. It was perfectly glittering with the sugar crust and the flaky pastry. A great crisp on the outside and inside was a fudgy cinnamon sugary almost jam like swirl through the more doughy centre. I would eat many of these!
It's a similar story for the other sugary goods- the doughnut and the cruffin. Totally perfect and filling -inducing! The lemon meringue pie was light as air, with a zesty, zingy posset and such a floofy meringue whip on top.
On to the pudpuds. These come as individual portions or sharing sizes. They can be frozen and cooked from chilled. They all cooked perfectly according to the instructions and had a gooey perfectly indulgent melted centre. This was gloriously comforting on such a cold day. I would say that some were a touch too sugary even for me but I can forgive this and just ignore it by the time I've dolloped some clotted cream on top.
All things considered, I think that a trip to the Pudding Stop and a walk around Verulamium will become a regular trip. It would be rude not to!
Service:
Really well decked out for Covid. Swift service and fun to watch the baking!
Quality:
Very high. You can tell that these handmade bakes are expertly made with passion and great ingredients
Value & Price:
We spent £30 on all the items we tried plus 2 coffees. I feel like that was a good price for what we got.
Overall:
EXCELLENT - Completely decadent and great quality. Very sweet though but hey, it's pudding!
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