{"id":3551,"date":"2016-01-04T12:52:09","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T12:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=3551"},"modified":"2016-01-04T12:52:09","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T12:52:09","slug":"pudding-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=3551","title":{"rendered":"Pudding power"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lamerle\/Pudding\/Flickr\"<\/a>

Lamerle\/Pudding\/Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n

Temperatures dip, appetites quicken, and thoughts – in our household at least – turn to puddings.<\/p>\n

But whereas for the rest of the year desserts might consist of fruit, cheese, ice cream or chocolate, a nip in the air encourages dreams of steamed puddings, crumbles, and pies.<\/p>\n

As we were invited over to Dame Verity on New Year’s Day, I felt it only fair to contribute a dish and the request came for …a pud gush.<\/p>\n

Now, I have no idea if this recipe came from a book or was invented by a family member, but it was a staple of my youth. It is a variation on a golden syrup suet pudding and was served with generous dollops of custard. Since I became a vegetarian quite young, it also had to be converted to suit and so began the search for a meatless suet alternative which turned out in those days to be Suenut.<\/p>\n

So much for context, but then the fun began. I first had to find the recipe and, once this was done, locate the ingredients – \u00a0not so easy when shopping between Christmas and New Year.<\/p>\n

The vegetarian suet was a bit of a challenge: it took three health food shops before I nabbed the last packet on the shelf. Strangely, self-raising flour also appeared to be in short supply until I again located a final packet – \u00a0this time at ground level right at the back of a deep shelf.<\/span><\/p>\n

I lowered myself gently to the floor before attempting to reach the rear of the shelf while lying prone. As my hand closed triumphantly <\/span>round the packet, I became aware of anxious noises from behind as two very kind gentlemen lifted me to my feet, fearing I had fallen over.<\/p>\n

To cut a long story short, the pud got made, the only major headache being how to translate a 1 lb pudding basin into modern day parlance. So if you care to try the recipe below, it works out that if you can pour a pint in that’s fine (a plastic one from your Xmas pud should do the trick). And joy of joys, if you don’t fancy steaming it for 1.5 hours, then 4.5 minutes in the microwave at 850W works a treat, too, but replacing foil with clingfilm (my steamer didn’t have room for two puds so I tried it both ways).<\/p>\n

While I was wading through cookery books trying to find what size bowl to use I also discovered a fair bit about the history of heavy boiled sweet puddings. It turns out they were rare in polite English homes before the second quarter of the nineteenth century and reached the height of their popularity in the Victorian era. This was very probably under the influence of the rather Germanic court, on the arrival of the Prince Consort, spawning a number of dishes with rather Teutonic names such as Kassel Pudding, Kaiser Pudding, Royal Coburg Pudding, Pudding a la Gotha and,of course, Albert Pudding (1).<\/p>\n

Pud Gush<\/strong>
\n8oz (227g) S.R. Flour
\n4oz (113g) Suenut (chopped or grated)
\nGolden syrup
\n1 egg
\n2tbsp water (may need more, I ended up using more like six)<\/p>\n

In large mixing bowl put flour, Suenut and mix thoroughly. Beat egg, mix with water and stir into flour. Beat well into light dough, slightly moister than for pastry.<\/p>\n

Roll out on floured board. Grease 1lb Pyrex bowl. Cut rolled out pastry into rounds or squares to fit in basin.<\/p>\n

First put 1tbsp syrup into basin, then layer of pastry, and continue until at least five layers of pastry. Leave last layer plain (ie no syrup on top).<\/p>\n

Cover basin with foil, and tie with string. Steam for 1.5 hours.<\/p>\n

For Spotted Dog use same recipe, omitting syrup, and using sultanas and 1tbsp sugar, pref Demerara but otherwise granulated.<\/p>\n

…and while I am in pudding mode, which may never happen again as far as damesnet is concerned, let me pass on the best recipe for Apple Crumble, courtesy of my Chicagoan grandmother, ever. Apologies for imperial measures.<\/p>\n

Honey Apple Pudding<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 tbsp flour<\/p>\n

4 tbsp Demerara sugar<\/p>\n

1\/4 tsp salt<\/p>\n

1\/2 tsp ground cinnamon<\/p>\n

4 large bramley apples, cored, peeled and sliced<\/p>\n

Topping:<\/p>\n

4 oz rolled oats<\/p>\n

4 oz S.R.flour<\/p>\n

4 oz Demerara sugar<\/p>\n

1\/2 tsp baking powder<\/p>\n

4 oz butter<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Method:<\/p>\n

Mix the tablespoon flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Sprinkle over the apples and mix well. Put into a well-greased casserole. Sift the 4 oz flour, sugar and baking powder, add the rolled oats and rub in the butter as for pastry dough. Crumble the mixture and sprinkle it over the apples. Bake in an oven at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes until the apples are tender. Serve with cream (and\/or honey).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you make it, please let me know what you think.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(1) Hutchins, Sheila, (1967),\u00a0English Recipes and Others, Methuen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steamed puddings are what winter is all about<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3551"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3571,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3551\/revisions\/3571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}