Daring Bakers - Traditional English Steamed Pudding - Ginger and Marmalade

The British Invasion.

They came.

They poured custard.

I conquered.

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.

Unfortunately, I was a little intimidated by the use of suet (fat rendered from animal kidneys), and so I opted to make a butter based steamed pudding. I have never made a steamed pudding before, and it came out absolutely delightful. A really rich, moist and spongey cake-like pudding, which sent me into swoons when accompanied with the most basic and simplest of custard sauces.

The only issue I had was with tying twine around parchment paper used to cover the tops of the pudding bowls. I must have two left-thumbs because after numerous attempts I was left with yards of cut twine, crumpled up paper and no decent covers. So I took a short-cut and covered the ramekins with aluminium foil. I also baked the puddings in a water bath in the oven, as opposed to steaming them in a steamer, because I did not have a pan big enough to hold all my little ramekins! Just some notes that I found along this adventure:

• Do not fill the ramekins to the top with batter, they will overflow as they rise. And trust me, they do rise!
• The puddings turned out of the dish better when warm and a few minuites out of the oven. The ramekins I left to cool completely fell apart when unmoulding.

Thank you Esther for a lovely challenge - a great introduction for me to the Daring Bakers group - this is my first attempt! Do check out the site for other fabulous creations that members came up with!


Orange Marmalade and Ginger Steamed Pudding (from Gourmet Traveller magazine).
I halved the original quantities
Pudding
100 gm soft unsalted butter
100 gm light muscovado sugar or light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 orange rind, finely grated
30 gm glacé ginger, coarsely chopped
100 gm self-raising flour
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp for each ramekin - orange marmalade
Butter for greasing ramekins


1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy, then add eggs, beating well after each addition.
3. Add rind and glacé ginger, then gradually sift flour and ground ginger over egg mixture and fold to combine.
4. Spread a teaspoon of marmalade among the bases of 6 lightly buttered ramekins. Divide batter among ramekins, cover each ramekin with a piece of baking paper (folded with a pleat in the middle to let the pudding rise during steaming) and secure with kitchen twine or a rubber band (or cop out and use lightly greased aluminium foil).
5. Place in a roasting pan, pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up sides of ramekinss and bake for 35-40 minutes or until cooked through when tested with a skewer.
6. Remove from water, stand for 5 minutes, turn onto serving plates and serve with custard.