Tuesday 1 July 2008

steamed blueberry puddings

 
These kinds of steamed puddings seem quintessentially British to me.

I think of Victorian families huddled around their dinner table, turning out their puddings and watching the berries and juices dribble down the sides.

OK, so that’s probably more romantic than the dank, stuffy reality of Victorian England, but let me dream.

Steamed puddings are wonderful winter desserts, and since I started my blueberry week yesterday with a chilled summer soup for my Northern Hemisphere friends, today I had to resort to wintery comfort food for my own selfish sake.

You see I am reading Northern Lights (aka the Golden Compass) and since most of it takes place in the Artic, all I want to do is curl up in a ball under a heavy blanket and eat warm cakes.

I was so proud of this pudding because I devised the recipe measurements all by myself and delivered a perfectly textured, dense yet fluffy, cake with a slight almond hint and delicious intense blueberry flavours.


Steamed Blueberry Puddings

Anna’s very own recipe. Makes 4.
 
Ingredients:
1 cup self raising flour
½ cup sugar
¼ cup softened butter
¼ cup almond meal
2 eggs
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 vanilla pod, beans reserved
Pinch of cinnamon
1 cup blueberries
1 tablespoon sugar, extra
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180’C. Grease 4 baking moulds with butter.
2. With the extra tablespoon sugar and lemon juice, heat blueberries for about 5 minutes until they soften a little.
3. Using electric beaters, beat golden syrup, vanilla beans, sugar and butter for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time and beat until combined.
5. Sift in almond meal and flour then fold into butter mixture. If mixture is too dry, add a little milk.
6. In the base of each mould spoon in two tablespoons of the blueberries. Top with cake batter.
7. Cover each mould with foil then place in a large baking tray. Pour boiling water halfway up the sides of the moulds.
8. Bake in oven between 40-60 minutes or until puddings have set and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
9. Run a knife around the edges of the moulds and invert onto a serving dish.
10. Spoon some more blueberries around the edges and serve with custard, cream or ice cream.

~~~

I want to enter this recipe into Waiter, There's Something in My . . . hosted by Cook Sister with the theme of berries, something that seems to be a very choice ingredient for blogging events hailing from the Northern Hemisphere at present. They must be having a berry nice summer up there.

OK, that's it. No more bad punnets from me.


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11 comments:

  1. Oooh Anna, this is plate-licking material...berries and puddin'!

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  2. Those blueberry puddings look good! Nice presentation.

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  3. Recipes are wonderful! Can't wait to try the steamed puds ! Yum

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  4. Oh, you had me at hello. I'm a sucker for little individual steamed puddings like these (and yes, until I moved to the UK I also had Victorian visions of life here. I put it down to our colonial heritage!!). I never know what to do with blueberries but this looks like a fine idea - thanks for sharing. Thanks also for takign part in WTSIM this month :)

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  5. this looks gorgeous - it is definitely steamed pudding weather - now I will be dreaming of making these puddings - and hope you are enjoying reading the Northern Lights and get to read the rest of the dark materials trilogy - it is such wonderful story telling

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  6. This looks like a fun way to use up frozen blueberries that I've been hanging onto since the summertime!

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  7. I'm going to make this in a single larger bowl/mould - do you think the cooking time needs to be increased to do so?

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    Replies
    1. yes but i'd add 10 minutes extra then start checking in 5-10 min increments. you wouldn't want to overcook it.

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  8. Sorry, one more question: I see the recipe doesn't list any salt. I am using unsalted butter, and wonder if I should be adding in a 1/2 tsp, or other amount, of salt to the dry ingredients? Thanks for your help.

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