Daring Baker's 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 hard but flaky fat found on the inside of a cow or sheep around the kidneys and that area of the body".

Unfortunately this steamed chocolate cake does not have any flaky fat from the inside of a cow or sheep :( But the bright side is that it was moist and delicious with a different texture entirely than a baked cake! It was very easy to throw together and I had never even heard of steamed "pudding" before this. The technique is not difficult and a very fun, different way to cook a cake. There was also the option of doing a savory pudding. With the savory puddings you construct a crust within the steaming bowl- similar to a chicken pot pie I would think. Steaming a cake may sound a little strange and difficult at first but it is very easy and has a unique texture that baking can't do.

It seems Chinese people and British people have similar minds because there is a steamed Chinese sponge cake that one can get during dim sum that is also extremely moist and delicious :D. This challenge was very interesting and I learned more than I thought I would. I learned what suet was, what a savory pudding was and how to steam a cake! Some tips on steaming:

The easiest way to steam a pudding is in a dedicated steamer as the water is kept away from the pudding so it can’t boil over. If, however, you don’t have a steamer use a pan large enough to easily fit the bowl you are cooking. Don’t fill the water more than about a third of the way up the bowl or it may boil over and into the bowl. Keep an eye and top up as needed with boiling water.

You need to lift the bowl off the bottom of the pan. This can be done with a steamer stand, an upturned plate or even crumpled up kitchen foil — anything that can stand being in boiling water and lifts the bowl off the bottom of the pan will work.

Make sure you have a well-fitted lid on the pan as you want the steam to cook the pudding not to boil off.

Make sure you put a pleat in the foil or paper you cover the bowl with to allow for expansion and then tie down tightly with string.

This is a bowl ready for the steamer, note the handle made from the string that also ties it together around the top.. this makes it very much easier to lift out when hot and is well worth doing.

Very Chocolate Pudding
www.puddingclub.com

120g Un Salted Butter

120g Caster Sugar

120g Self-raising 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, inevitably, Chocolate Sauce. Custard or Extra Thick are also wonderful with this pudding.