Daring Bakers Challenge: Traditional British Puddings

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.

This challenge put me out of my comfort zone not only with a new technique, but with a new ingredient as well: suet. I rarely eat meat, so my first thought was to forge ahead with the vegetarian suet version or to just make a sweet sponge pudding.

But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to attempt the traditional version of the challenge. I put aside my objections so that I could try an authentic dish from another culture. And then I decided to try the sweet sponge pudding as well!

Both puddings were delicious! The bacon leek filling was out of this world. I thought that the suet crust was a bit thick, and it was very rich. Perhaps the measurements were a little off due to my conversions. I don’t have a scale so I had to convert all the measurements to cups, tablespoons, etc. It seemed like I had too much dough, but I used it all anyway as I thought it would make the pudding sturdier.

The suet was actually pretty easy to work with, since it is a solid at room temperature. Most instructions recommend rendering the suet to remove the membrane and then shredding it. I didn’t choose this method, for a couple of reasons. The challenge hostess, Esther, explained that she simply crumbles it off the membrane when it’s frozen. Since I generally take the lazy way out, and a pan of hot beef fat doesn’t sound too safe to me, I decided to skip the rendering step. I peeled off as much of the membrane as I could and crumbled the frozen suet into small chunks.

Setting up the steaming apparatus was also a challenge. In order to steam the pudding, the bowl must be placed inside a large pot without touching the bottom or sides. There should be enough water in the bottom of the pot that it doesn’t boil dry, but not so much that it boils up and into the pudding bowl. Thanks to a recommendation from a fellow Daring Baker, Audax, I set up my Crock Pot to steam the pudding.

I placed a folded kitchen towel underneath the bowl to keep it off the bottom of the pot. I had plenty of room to put an inch of water in the bottom without it coming up too far on the sides of the bowl. Using the Crock Pot was a great method, since virtually no water escapes during cooking. I didn’t have to top off the water at all during steaming.

The chocolate raspberry pudding batter reminded me of cake batter. The steaming process introduced a unique texture. It was spongy and rather dense, but very tasty! Guess what it tasted like? Banana bread. Weird, I know. There were no bananas in sight, that could have snuck into this pudding. But The Boyfriend and I both got a banana bread flavor from this pudding. Very interesting.

I’ll definitely be making pudding again, as it’s a relatively simple cooking method with an infinite amount of adaptable recipes. I recommend visiting the blogs of my fellow Daring Bakers to see all the beautiful adaptations of this traditional British dish!

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.

Bacon and Leek Pudding
Adapted from Farmers Weekly
Yield: 4-6 servings

Filling:
6 strips bacon, cooked
1 tablespoon butter
1 leek
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup vegetable broth, warmed
2 sprigs fresh thyme, stripped from stalks
1/3 cup cream, room temperature
salt and pepper to taste

Suet crust:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded suet
salt and pepper to taste
scant 1 cup of milk

To prepare the filling:

Slice the cooked bacon into pieces. Trim the roots and the tips off of the leek and slice it into small pieces. Melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan and saute the leeks until tender. Sprinkle the flour over the leeks and stir it in.

Slowly pour in the vegetable broth while whisking to prevent lumps. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until it thickens. Turn the heat down to a simmer, and add the thyme, cream, and bacon. Stir well and simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

To prepare the crust:

Grease a 1 liter pudding basin or heatproof bowl (I used a Pyrex bowl) with butter. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the flour and suet together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Work in the milk, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough is elastic and cleans the sides of the bowl. I needed a scant cup of milk, but you may need more or less liquid. Try not to handle or knead the pastry as it will get tough.

Reserve 1/4 of the dough for the lid. Roll out the rest of the dough and line the bowl with it. Pour the filling into the crust. Roll out the lid and attach it by moistening the edges of the bottom crust with water. Press the edges together, using a fork to crimp.

Cover the pudding with foil or other greaseproof paper, pleated in the middle to allow for expansion of the pudding. Press the foil tightly under the lip of the bowl. Wrap a length of kitchen twine around the bowl to secure the lid and prevent any water from leaking into the pudding. Fashion the twine into a handle over the top of the bowl if desired (this will facilitate easier removal from the steamer).

Steam the pudding for about 5 hours. Carefully remove the twine and foil, and turn the pudding out onto a plate.

Chocolate Raspberry Steamed Pudding
Adapted from Telegraph
Yield: 6-8 servings

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen
1 cup bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2-3 tablespoons milk or water

Grease a 1 liter pudding basin or heatproof bowl (I used a Pyrex bowl). Line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper.

Cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla extract, and beat well. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold the flour mixture into the butter mixture.

Add 2-3 tablespoons of milk or water, enough to produce a “dropping consistency” (I assumed this meant that the batter should drop back into the bowl when lifted out on the back of a spoon). Stir in the raspberries and chocolate.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pudding basin or bowl. Cover with foil or parchment paper, leaving a crease in the middle for the pudding to expand while cooking. Tie the cover on with string, leaving a handle on top if desired (recommended for easy removal of basin from steaming container). Steam for 2 hours.

Turn the pudding out onto a plate, and serve with fresh raspberries.