Steamed jam pudding

For me, a steamed pudding is a real 'comfort food' recipe. I remember eating steamed puddings as a kid, but I can't remember who it was that made it for me - perhaps Great Grandmother or Grandmother or Auntie.

I think there is nothing quite like sitting down to a warm, sweet pudding that's been steaming on the stove all afternoon. The texture of the sponge is very different to a baked pudding and the hot topping makes everything sticky and sweet. And served with some custard, cream or icecream makes this so luscious.

This recipe is also a great way to use up those half-used bottles of jams and preserves at the back of the fridge. Mix them all together for a lovely flavour combination. Or if you like, add some tinned fruit to the jam mix for some extra texture and flavour.

The recipe I used for this pudding came from BBC Good Food Magazine (UK edition), November edition pp121. This is an excellent magazine, with lots of creative and delicious recipes. The Australian edition of this magazine is excellent as well.

I found the recipe to be spot on, apart from the cooking time. My pudding only took 90 minutes to cook. The sponge part of the pudding was wonderfully moist, and the jam on top was lovely, sticky and sweet.
I served ours with some marscapone cream and a small dallop of lemon curd - what I had in the fridge basically.

On the first night we ate this, the pudding was still warm from cooking. On the subsequent nights, I heated it for 20 seconds or so in the microwave oven, then spooned over the cream. Delish!!

What you'll need

Serves 6 - 8 people

For the topping:
4 heaped tablespoons of whatever jam/conserve you have. I used a homemade strawberry jam. You could also use golden syrup or treacle. If you want to use tinned fruit, you'll need about 200g, drained and roughly chopped.

For the pudding:
175g softened butter
175g caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
3 large eggs
2 tbls milk
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used beans from a quarter dried vanilla pod)

           

What to do

1. Grease a pudding basin with butter and pour the jam (or whatever you are using as the topping) into the bottom. I don't have a pudding basin, so I used a small ceramic salad bowl instead. It will need to have a capacity of 1 - 1.5L.

2. Boil a kettle full of water. In the bottom of a large and deep saucepan place a upturned bowl. The bowl should fit well into the bottom of the saucepan and also should be big enough to hold the pudding basin.  

3. Place all the pudding ingredients into a bowl and mix for 2 minutes with an electric mixer. Scrape the mixture into the pudding basin.

4. Make a lid for the pudding basin from a piece of baking paper and foil. Place a large piece of baking paper over a large piece of foil, approximately 60cm x 40cm. Grease the baking paper. Then make a pleat (fold, then fold back, see picture above) through both sheets. Use about 5cm of the paper for the pleat. This will give the lid some room to move if the pudding rises over the edge of the basin. Use some kitchen string to tie the lid tightly to the basin (see picture above).

5. Carefully place the pudding basin into the saucepan, centering it on the bowl at the bottom. Using the hot water from the kettle, pour the water into the saucepan until it comes half way up the pudding basin.

6. Set over medium heat and bring to the boil. Cover the saucepan with a lid and reduce the heat to low so that the water is gently simmering. Check the water periodically during the cooking time and top up with more water if needed.

7. Cook for approximately 90 minutes. Check if cooked by inserting a wooden skewer through the paper/foil lid and into the pudding. If it comes out cleanly, it is ready. If not, cook for another 20 minutes and check again.

8. Once cooked, remove the pudding from the heat, remove the lid of the saucepan and the lid of the pudding basin. Leave to sit for at least 30 minutes so that the jam sets a little.

9. Remove the pudding basin from the saucepan and turn the pudding out onto a plate.

10. Serve immediately with cream, custard or ice cream.