Daring Bakers: Traditional British Pudding

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.

Suet is the raw fat from a cow or sheep that is found around the kidneys. We were encouraged to use suet, but in the case of unavailability, we were allowed to use shortening or butter. We were also given a lot of options regarding what type of pudding we would make; sweet or savory.

A British pudding is not the type of pudding that Americans think of. Pudding refers to the type of dish that it is cooked in and the cooking method. A pudding dish is basically a big bowl and the puddings are steamed, not baked.

Before going in the steamer (I covered it with foil)

I opted to make a chocolate pudding and I used butter for it. I could not find suet, so butter was the option I went with. The chocolate pudding, while not beautiful, was incredibly delicious. It was a gooey, chocolatey brownie/cake. So good!

1 1/2 hours later.....

This was the first time I have steamed a dessert and it turned out so moist. The benefit of steaming comes from having the steam completely surround the dish therefore creating a more moist pudding. Plus, overcooking is difficult to do while steaming these puddings.

After being flipped out of the pudding bowl.

Very Chocolate Pudding
The Pudding Club

120g Unsalted Butter
120g Caster Sugar
120g Self-rising flour
30g Cocoa Powder
2 Eggs
60g Chocolate Chips

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and cocoa together and add with the egg, a little at a time, to the creamed mixture, beating well between each addition. Finally, stir in half the chocolate chips.

Place a covering of the remaining chocolate chips over the base of a greased 1.1 litre pudding before adding the mixture. Steam for 1 ½ hours. Turn out and serve with chocolate sauce, custard, or whipped cream.