Category Archives: Desserts – Hot

Traditional Christmas Pudding

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I know, I am annoyingly organised, but I made my Plum Pudding a few days ago and it’s tightly wrapped and sitting in the fridge, ready to be re-steamed on Christmas Eve. I made my first Christmas pudding last year, and it really was yummy (even better the next morning). And you do almost all the work long before you eat it, so there’s almost no preparation on the day. Suits me.

I got a pudding basin with a lid last year from Moore Wilson’s for about $25. The lid fastening is a little dodgy so I don’t rely on it solely when lifting the basin in and out of the giant pot of hot water, but other than that, cooking the pudding is a cinch.

However, I’m not really sure how one goes about steaming the pudding without such a basin. I guess you can use any heat-proof bowl and do some serious tin foil work on the top. I know there is also the method of tying the pudding up in calico and suspending it into the hot water from a stick. These look awesome but a leeeeeeetle daunting for me.

I mashed this recipe together from all the recipes I could find in my books, taking the yummiest looking bits out of each recipe. I also refuse to use suet, so this recipe uses butter. It seemed to work ok!

As with Christmas Cake, I think the important thing about a Christmas Pudding is the quality of the fruit. So I buy a mixture of fancy dried fruits from the bulk bin (this time around it was prunes – obviously, so I could call it a plum pudding – strawberries, crystallised ginger, cranberries, cherries, apricots, dates and apple chunks). Then I top the fruit up to the quantity listed in the recipe with bought cake fruit mix. Other possibilities include currants, sultanas, mixed peel, raisins, figs, etc.

Time for a Little Something’s Christmas Pudding
Serves 6-8 at least

2 cups flour
75g butter, softened
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
3½ cups mixed dried fruit (see above), chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
½ tsp ground ginger
½ cup golden syrup
½ cup trim milk
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 orange, grated rind
1 lemon, grated rind

To get ready, spray a pudding basin and the inside of its lid with cooking spray. You really don’t want to go to all this trouble and have it stick. Get a Very Big Pot (a stockpot is really the only answer) and half fill it with hot water, and get it heating on medium heat so it’s boiling by the time you’re ready to start steaming the pudding. In the bottom of this Very Big Pot, you need a trivet, or something the pudding basin can sit on so it’s not on the floor of the pot. I have a shallow ceramic baking dish which I turn upside down.

Place the flour in a large bowl (I use my cake mixer), and rub the softened butter in using your fingertips. Add the brown sugar, chopped dried fruit and spices, and mix to combine.

Warm the milk in the microwave (just a little – 20 seconds) in a medium bowl, and stir in the baking soda to dissolve it. In another little jug or bowl, warm the golden syrup in the microwave (again, 20-30 seconds), and add that to the milk, along with the eggs and grated lemon and orange rind. Beat with a fork, and pour it onto the dry ingredients.

Stir (or turn the cake mixer on) until the pudding batter is well mixed.

Pour the mixture into your prepared pudding basin, making sure there’s at least an inch or so of room at the top, as the pudding will rise as it steams. Put the lid on tightly and carefully lower into your Very Big Pot of boiling water, sitting it on whatever platform you have devised. When I cooked my pudding, the water came about a third or a half way up the pudding basin. Put the lid on the Very Big Pot and gently boil the pudding for 4 hours. Check back every so often to make sure your Very Big Pot still has enough boiling water in it, and top up if needed.

After 4 hours, carefully remove the pudding basin from the Very Big Pot. Take the lid off and invert the basin over a cooling rack. Fingers crossed, the pudding will slide out nicely and sit smugly cooling on the rack.

When it’s cold, wrap it first in tin foil, and then in a plastic supermarket bag with a knot tied snugly at the top. I’ve put mine at the back of the bottom shelf in my fridge, and there it shall stay until I need it on Christmas Eve. Then, I will unwrap it, poke it a few times with a skewer, pour a couple of tablespoons of brandy over it, put it back in its basin, and repeat the steaming process for another 2-3 hours. Then I’ll turn it out onto a serving plate, pour about ½ cup of brandy over it, set it on fire, and carry it to the table to rapturous applause. When the flames have burned themselves out (and, fingers crossed, not set fire to my hair), I will slice it up and serve it with my husband’s family Rum Sauce.

Now, there is one problem with this blog post. I forgot to take a photo of my steamed pudding before I wrapped it snugly and put it in the fridge. D’oh. But to be honest, a steamed, undecorated pudding is not a thing of beauty.

For your viewing pleasure, I have found an image of a Christmas Pudding online, in case you haven’t seen one before. Obviously, mine looks exactly like this. Exaaaaactly.

(image found here)

Good luck if you decide to try one!

Marmalade Steamed Pudding

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I started getting really into steamed puddings a while ago. They seem a bit of a fiddle first time round, but actually they’re not hard, and they result in a yummy moist cakey dessert that you eat warm with sauce. Mmmmmmmmm. And I even like the anxious moment when the bowl is inverted… will it turn out? won’t it? will it? It did! Yusssssssssssssss.

I made this lime marmalade a few weeks ago and have been looking for new things to do with it. Steamed puddings made with jam or marmalade are nothing new, but I hadn’t made one before. You plonk all the marmalade in the bottom of the pudding steamer, and carefully add the pudding batter on top, so as the pudding steams the marmalade turns to a delicious syrup, and then when you turn it out the syrupy marmalade goodness soaks back into the pudding like a sauce. Genius.

This is a very basic steamed pudding recipe. Like most good basic recipes, it will serve you well and is reliable, but can also be adapted to suit your own tastes. I’d like to try making it with buttermilk sometime, and also to see if reduced-fat spread could replace at least some of the butter (although the recipe is actually relatively light already). Any flavour marmalade would work with this; why not try a grapefruit and orange pudding?

 

Marmalade Steamed Pudding
Serves 4

50g butter
¼ cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup self-raising flour
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
½ cup trim milk
½ cup marmalade (see here for my lime marmalade recipe)
yoghurt, cream or ice cream, to serve (I vote Greek yoghurt for this one)

Cream the butter and sugar, until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and lemon rind, and beat again. Stir in the sifted flour and milk. Grease a pudding basin (non-stick spray is your friend here), and spoon the marmalade into the bottom of the basin. Carefully spoon the pudding batter on top and cover the basin. My steamer has a clip on lid, but you could cover a basin with two layers of tin foil tied on tightly. In case you’re new to steaming, this is how I do it – I have a big stockpot that I set on the stove, and put an upturned ceramic heatproof saucer or dish in the bottom, which the pudding basin can sit on top of. Then I half-¾ fill it up with hot water and bring it to the boil while I’m mixing the pudding. Carefully place the pudding basin into the stockpot, on top of the saucer. This pudding is actually quite light so I had to put a plate on top of the pudding basin to weigh it down and stop it rolling around in the stockpot! Bring the water back to the boil, and steam the pudding for an hour.

Take the bowl out of the steamer and remove the lid. Place a plate across the bottom of the bowl and carefully invert the whole arrangement so the pudding turns out nicely. Serve hot or warm with yoghurt, cream or ice cream.

Rhubarb & Tamarillo Bread & Butter Pudding

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I’ve been intrigued by bread & butter pudding lately. It’s not something I grew up with so I’ve been trying different recipes to work out how it’s supposed to taste. After a couple of pleasant but unspectacular puddings, I think I’ve found the winner.

I really liked the hot tamarillos in the second pudding attempt, so kept them in but paired them with rhubarb this time. Mmmm. And finally the stars aligned and I got the custard to pudding ratio right. It was the dawning of the age of aquarius, age of aquariuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus. Aquarius.

Rhubarb & Tamarillo Bread and Butter Pudding
Serves 4

1 bunch rhubarb, trimmed and chopped into 5 cm lengths
4-5 tamarillos, quartered
1-2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2-3 Tbsp brown sugar
4-6 slices of fruit bread*
raspberry jam
3 eggs
3 Tbsp caster sugar
1 cup trim milk
icing sugar, to dust
ice cream and/or custard, to serve

*I tried different kinds of fruit bread in all these puddings, including homemade, and Bürgen was the nicest

Preheat oven to 200°(c). Place the rhubarb and tamarillo in lined baking or roasting pans (I used separate brownie tins). Splash the rhubarb with a tablespoon or two of cold water, and drizzle the balsamic vinegar over the tamarillos. Sprinkle both tins with brown sugar and bake until tender (about 10-15 minutes, I think). Leave to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, spread the fruit bread with raspberry jam (one side only), and cut the slices diagonally into quarters. Lightly spray a ceramic baking dish with non-stick spray, and layer half the bread quarters in the bottom of the dish, jam side up. Set aside.

When the tamarillos are cool enough to handle, slip their skins off (should just slide off easily, like capsicums). Layer the tamarillo and rhubarb over the bread. I only used about two thirds of the fruit in the pudding, but didn’t decrease the quantities in the ingredients list above, because you need to put the leftover fruit in a covered container in your fridge, and then you need to eat it on your breakfast cereal or porridge for tomorrow and maybe the next day if there’s enough. Need.

Layer the remaining bread quarters on the top of the pudding, jam side down, so you have a big jammy fruity sandwich.

In a new bowl, whisk together the eggs and caster sugar until frothy, then whisk in the milk. Pour this over the pudding and let it soak in for 5-10 minutes. Then bake at 160° for 30-35 minutes until firm and golden. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve warm/hot with custard or ice cream.

This is also my entry for this month’s Sweet NZ, which Alessandra Zecchini is hosting. Yum! Looking forward to seeing what other bloggers have been making.

Poached Fruit in Chardonnay

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Dried fruit from bulk bins is under-rated.  Often I pick up a few pieces of something new when I’m shopping – there are hidden treasures in those bins. Definitely recommend ‘razz’ cherries. Try them and you’ll understand. Good shops – try supermarket bulk bins, or Moore Wilson’s (although often you have to buy a huge amount), or we finally have a Bin Inn in Wellington. Yusss!

It’s nice over winter to still eat summer fruit, even if it has to be in dried or tinned (or, ok, imported) form. This is a recipe for more deluxe-y dried fruit poached in chardonnay – cooked in a slow cooker. I use my slow cooker heaps over winter – I’m yet to get lamb as tender in the oven as it gets in the slow cooker. And I know everyone says this, but I do love putting dinner on in the morning and then just serving dinner up with minimal effort at the end of the day. There. I said it. I’ve joined the cliché club.

Anyway… I tried this recipe a week or two ago, and it will be making its way into the pages of my tried & true recipe book.  It actually comes from an Alison Holst book (100 Great Ways to Use Slow Cookers), and I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me sharing it with you. Especially if I give her book a plug. You can find all manner of (predictable) classics in this book – but I find it’s easy enough to chic them up a bit. There are also some interesting gems in there – this recipe, for example, or a pork and kumara dish cooked in cornhusks, some good curry recipes, a dessert of spiced poached quinces…

Back to the poached fruit. I used dried figs, pear halves, peach halves, apple rings, cranberries, apricots and prunes. Cooked in the syrup, the fruit plumps up beautifully and is delicious – tender, but not mushy, with intense flavours. And the syrup keeps the orange and chardonnay flavours. Beautiful.

It’s delicious with vanilla (or a gourmet) ice cream. Alison also suggests serving with plain cake – or you could drain the syrup and add it to a cheese board (I’m thinking pears would be especially nice – you could pop some walnuts in the slow cooker too).

Poached Fruit in Chardonnay Syrup

1 cup orange juice
¼ cup water
1 cup chardonnay
½ cup sugar
1-2 cinnamon quills
3-4 whole cloves
500-750g good dried and crystallised fruit

Put all ingredients into a slow cooker set on LOW. Put on the lid and cook for 3-4 hours, or until the fruit has plumped up. That’s it. Seriously.

You can either serve it straight away, or put the fruit and syrup into a jar – it will keep for about a week in the fridge.

 Enjoy!

Bread and Butter Pudding – Mach II

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I felt my last bread and butter pudding was yummy, but had too much custard mixture. So this week I tried again, using less custard mixture, and different fruit. I’d definitely repeat the hot nectarine and tamarillo filling, but this time the pudding had too little custard! What am I, Goldilocks?

Hopefully Mach III will be the ultimate.

Meantime, here’s Grilled Fruit Bread and Butter Pudding. For four serves, you need -

4-6 slices fruit bread
apricot jam or marmalade, to spread
fruit for grilling – stone fruit works best
a little brown sugar and balsamic vinegar
2 eggs
2-3 Tbsp caster sugar
150ml evaporated milk
custard, to serve

I know nectarines aren’t in season at the moment. But the ones imported from the US are really cheap. They’re NOT nice to eat - I find them floury and yucky - but if you cook them up, they’re good dessert fare. I sliced up 3 nectarines and 2 tamarillos, sprinkled with brown sugar, splashed with balsamic and grilled for a few minutes until they were hot and softened.

Spread the fruit bread with jam. Put half the slices in the bottom of a ceramic baking dish, jam side up (cut them to fit). Place the grilled fruit over the bread, and cover with the remaining bread (jam side down this time).

The custard mixture is adapted from a Healthy Food Guide recipe. Whisk the eggs and sugar together well, add the milk and whisk again. Pour this over the pudding and bake for 30-35 minutes at 160. When it’s done, the bread on top will feel firm and there won’t be any runny egg mixture racing around. Sprinkle with icing sugar, and serve with custard.

Watch this space for Mach III.

Dark Chocolate & Orange Molten Cakes

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Dark chocolate and orange are so good together.  And you wouldn’t think it, but these cakes are really low fat (I adapted the recipe from a healthy one). You could serve them for dessert with creme fraiche, whipped cream or vanilla yoghurt. I also made a little orange and apricot coulis to serve with them, but they’ll be just as delicious on their own.

Dark Chocolate & Orange Molten Cakes

150g dark chocolate, broken into pieces (I used Whittaker’s Dark Ghana)
1/2 cup light evaporated milk
2 eggs
4 Tbsp caster sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 Tbsp finely grated orange zest
1 tsp orange essence

First, get your little dishes ready. You need 1/2 cup capacity ramekins or moulds. I used stainless steel moulds but I still had sticking issues. Next time I think I’d cook them in ceramic ramekins and let people eat them straight out of the cooking dishes!

Spray your 6  dishes with non-stick spray. Then get about 1/4 cup flour and put it in a small sieve. Sift the flour over the dishes, then give the dishes a shake to make sure the flour evenly coats them. Tap off any excess.

Next, put the chocolate and evaporated milk in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring, until the chocolate melts.

Take the pan off the heat and set aside to cool.

I used my Kenwood for the next step. Beat the eggs and sugar together until they’re thick and pale. They’ll almost double in volume.

Add the orange zest, orange essence, sifted flour, and chocolate mixture to the eggs. Fold them together very gently, taking care not to overmix.

Pour the mixture into your six dishes, and leave them to chill for at least 2 hours. Up to about 24 is fine I think.

When you’re ready, preheat the oven to 200 (c). Pop the ramekins in on a tray and bake them for 12 minutes – they should look like cooked cakes on top but still be runny (but hot) in the middle. Leave them to sit in their dishes for 2-3 minutes before either serving as they are, or turning them out onto dessert plates. Dust the cakes with icing sugar, and serve with creme fraiche, vanilla yoghurt or whatever else takes your fancy! The sauce in this photo was some runny blackcurrant and plum jam. Not my most elegant flavour matching but it was still yummy!

Bread and Butter Pudding

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I didn’t grow up with bread and butter pudding, but I’m led to believe it is a classic English pud and a favourite for many - rich and custardy bread. Mmmm.

This is a healthier version of bread and butter pudding. I’ve flavoured this one with apple and cinnamon, and it was pretty good … but I believe that there is an ultimate bread and butter pudding out there waiting to be discovered. So I’ll be trialling different flavours and recipes over the next few weeks, hopefully culminating in a superb bread and butter pudding! If you have any flavour suggestions, please leave a comment!

Apple and Cinnamon Bread & Butter Pudding

2 apples, cored and diced (I left the peel on)
6-8 slices fruit bread
apricot jam
1 orange, finely grated rind (I had no oranges so I used 3 mandarins. Don’t try it. It’s not tidy).
2 Tbsp brown sugar
3 eggs
1 egg white
1 1/2 cups trim milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice

Preheat the oven to 180 (c). Spray a ceramic baking dish with non-stick spray.

Place the chopped apples in a microwave safe bowl and cover with a plate. Cook for 3-4 minutes on high, until the fruit is tender. Drain well and set aside.

Spread the slices of fruit bread with the jam, and cut the slices into quarters. Layer half the bread in the baking dish, spread side up. Then layer the apples on top of the bread. Sprinkle over the orange rind and brown sugar.

Then layer the other slices of fruit bread on top, spread side down.

Whisk together the eggs, extra egg white and caster sugar until frothy. Add the milk, cinnamon and mixed spice, and whisk again. Pour this mixture over the pudding and leave it on the bench to soak for 10 minutes or so.

Bake the pudding for about 35 minutes, until it feels firm on top, and is nice and golden. Don’t worry if the custard still looks a little bit runny, it will set while you rest it for 5 minutes. Dust the pudding with icing sugar and serve with extra custard. Serves 4-6.