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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

My Fair Lady - A Traditional British Steamed Pudding!



When I first heard about this month's Daring Baker's Challenge, I raced to call my friend Meredith, who would know more about traditional British puddings because of her British background.  First I needed to know if it was really necessary for me to use Suet, the secret ingredient, because I really wasn't into baking with it.  She assured me that her family no longer used it and I would be fine with a substitute....Although I am sure it tasted wonderful with Suet, I used Crisco instead.   Then I invited Meredith over for the taste test (see the end of this post)

Some of you will know  the meaning of the word "pudding" but I wasn't that familiar with it.  The British use the word for many things:
1) Black pudding and white pudding a sort of meat and grain sausage. Black pudding uses blood as well as meat.
2) Pudding — a generic word for dessert
3) Pudding — any dish cooked in a pudding bowl or pudding cloth normally steamed, boiled but sometimes baked.
4) An endearment i.e., "How are you today my pudding?" sooo cute!

For the Daring Baker's Challenge this month ....number two and  three apply,  a dish cooked in a pudding bowl or cloth, plus I am making it sweet which is why the dessert meaning applies too!

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet,  (As I said before, I used Crisco instead)

The Recipe


(100 grams/4 ounces) All-purpose flour
(1/4 teaspoon) salt
(1.5 teaspoons) Baking powder
(100 grams/4 ounces) breadcrumbs
(75 grams/3 ounces) sugar
Finely grated rind of 1 medium orange (or lemon)
(75 grams/ 3 ounces) Crisco (Shredded suet or suet substitute, Vegetable Suet,  Lard)
(1) large egg
(6 to 8 tablespoons) Cold milk
Caramel Sauce
Custard (See video below)

1. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into bowl.
2. Add breadcrumbs, sugar, finely grated rind of 1 medium orange, ( or lemon) and Crisco
3. Mix to a soft batter with beaten egg and milk
4. (Optional)  I added a few tablespoons of caramel sauce from the Orange Tian, to the bottom of a buttered 1 litre/2 pint pudding basin
5. Add the batter and cover securely with buttered greaseproof paper or aluminum foil. I tied a string around to secure it.


5. Steam steadily for 2.5 to 5 hours.  I used my slow cooker like my fellow Daring Baker, Audax Artifax suggested and it worked perfectly.  I crunched up some foil so the pudding mold wouldn't sit on the bottom and added water until it was about  1/3 up the sides, then just left it TO STEAM  for FIVE  HOURS!!!!

6. Turn out onto warm plate and serve with a sweet sauce to taste such as custard, caramel or a sweetened fruit sauce.

I  made a custard just like the video below!
 

for a variation...
Spotted Dick - Add 75g/ 3oz currants and 25g/1 oz of mixed chopped peel with the sugar.
Syrup or Treacle or Marmalade Pudding – put 2 Tablespoons of golden syrup, treacle or marmalade at the bottom of the bowl before adding pudding mix.
Ginger Pudding – replace the sugar with 100g/4oz of treacle, and add 1/2 tsp ground ginger.

The moment finally arrived and I served Meredith, on my Royal Doulton china of course...very British......and I was thrilled when she said it tasted ...like England!!!

It brought back memories of when she was younger and was quite impressed when I used Birds to make the custard sauce.

She kept on insisting that skin forming on the custard was not good so I made sure to keep stirring...I must say she kept on tasting and tasting the custard sauce...I think she liked the custard sauce a lot.
Thanks for support on this challenge Meredith ....now get away from the custard!
Cheerio!
Until we bake again...
Penny




7 comments:

Audax said...

I'm so glad this challenge went so well for you (and thanks for the link to my blog) it looks and sounds delicious well done on this challenge.

Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

Patty said...

Great job! And how fun that you were able to invite your British friend to taste test with you!

Meredith said...

ooops I put my comments on the wrong post! yum yum I was so happy to test... and test...and test....

Myfanwy said...

Sorry to contradict my daughter but I use suet never tried it with Crisco. My favourite pudding, apart from my Christmas Pudding, is spotted dick. Bird's Custard is the only way to go. Years and years ago it wasn't available in Canada and I brought it back from England when we visited. I must replace my pudding bowl which I broke a while ago and then I will try your recipe!

Penny said...

Myfanwy, maybe one day I could watch you make it! Also I would like to go shopping with you so I can get a proper pudding bowl too. where do you get your suet...I feel like I wasn't daring and should really try it with the suet.

Unknown said...

It looked pretty good but sorry I wasn't there to taste.

Renata said...

Looks deliciuos with that custard... hmmmm!

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