Marmalade Pudding for Daring Baker's

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.

Initially, when I read about the challenge I was overwhelmed by the details of the savory pudding. Somehow it stuck to my mind as being a very difficult challenge. I was really busy this month with work and I thought I wouldnt be able to attempt this month's challenge. But yesterday I was just reading through the posting once more and I saw the sponge type pudding can be actually completed in an evening! So I decided to go ahead with the attempt.

All the ingredients were readily available and was quick to put together! Instead of suet, I used equal amounts of butter to make the sponge type pudding. I was able to complete the challenge in just about 2 hours!! The batter was real easy to whip up and the steaming took me about an hour. I just used a regular bowl as my mold. I finished the pudding with piping of melted chocolate and orange marmalade left over from last month's challenge. The pudding isn't much to look at, but like many other DBers said, it tastes much better than it looks! :-)



VERDICT:

Even though I didn't feel that this pudding was anything to rave about, I feel that Esther's primary objectives were to introduce the traditional English ingredient suet and to incorporate the method of steaming into our challenge. I would say she succeeded in her ways! I did not try the suet, but I am happy that I successfully steamed my first English pudding, to perfection. The pudding was perfectly steamed, light and fluffy. I had thought that the pudding would turn out to be dense, but I was completely wrong. The marmalade was the perfect accompaniment to the pudding and enhanced the flavor multifold, even more than the chocolate! It was amazing - the combo of marmalade and pudding!! Thank you Ester for making us do something different for the challenge this month!

Type 1 Puddings — suet crusts.

Pudding Crust for both Savory Pudding or Sweet Pudding (using suet or a suet substitute):

Ingredients

(250 grams/12 ounces) Self-raising flour (Note* If you cannot find self-raising flour, use a combination of all-purpose flour and baking powder.)
(175 grams/6 ounces) Shredded suet or suet substitute (i.e., Vegetable Suet, Crisco, Lard)
(a pinch) Salt and pepper (Note* If making a savory dish, can be replaced with spices for sweet if wished.)
(210 milliliters/a little less than a cup) Water (Note* You can use a milk or a water and milk mix for a richer pastry.)

1. Mix the flour and suet together.
2. Season the flour and suet mixture with salt and pepper if savory and just a bit of salt and/or spices if sweet.
3. Add the water, a tablespoonful at a time, as you mix the ingredients together. Make up the pastry to firm an elastic dough that leaves the bowl clean. The liquid amounts are only an estimate and most recipes just say water to mix.
4. Don’t over handle the pastry or it will be too hard.
5. Reserve a quarter for the lid and roll out the rest and line a well-greased bowl.
6. At this point add your filling.. a couple of options are give below but have fun and go wild!
7. Roll the final piece of pastry out into a circle big enough to cover the top of the basin, dampen the edges and put in position on the pudding, pinching the edges together to seal.
8. Seal well and cover with a double sheet of foil – pleated in the centre to allow room for expansion while cooking. Secure with string, and place it in a steamer over boiling water.
9. Steam for up to 5 hours, you may need to add more boiling water halfway through or possibly more often. There is a lot of leeway in this steaming time and different recipes give different steaming times. Delia Smith says 5 hours for Steak and kidney where as Mrs Beeton says 2.5 for a similar dish! One way to tell that it is cooked is when the pastry changes colour and goes from white to a sort of light golden brown. It is also hard to over steam a pudding so you can leave it bubbling away until you are ready.

This one is a steak and onion one cooked for 1.5 hours.

This sort of pastry can also be used as a topping for a baked meat pie and becomes quite a light crusty pastry when baked.

Savory Pudding Filling options: steak and kidney pudding.

1 full amount of suet crust (see recipe above)
(450 grams/about 1 pound) Chuck steak
(225 grams/about 1/2 a pound) Ox kidney
1 medium-sized onion
2 teaspoons well-seasoned flour
splash of Worcestershire sauce

1. Chop the steak and kidney into fairly small cubes, toss them in seasoned flour, then add them to the pastry lined basin.
2. Pop the onion slices in here and there.
3. Add enough cold water to reach almost to the top of the meat and sprinkle in a few drops of Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper.
4. Follow the rest of the instructions in the crust recipe to finish pudding.
5. Cook for at least 2.5 hours (Mrs Beeton) up to 5 hours (Delia Smith).

Sweet Pudding Options: Sussex Pond Pudding

1 amount of suet pastry (see recipe above)
(120 grams/4.2 ounces) Demerara Sugar
(120 grams/4.2 ounces) unsalted butter
1 large lemon

1. Cut the butter into small pieces and put half in the basin with half the sugar.
2. Prick the whole lemon (preferably one with a thin skin) all over, using a thick skewer.
3. Place on top of the butter and sugar in the basin.
4. Cover with the rest of the butter and sugar.
5. Finish building the pudding as per the pastry recipe.
6. Steam for 3 ½ hours, or longer (for a really tender lemon), adding more water if needed.
7. To serve, turn the pudding into a dish with a deep rim, when you slice into it the rich lemon sauce will gush out.
8. Make sure each person is served some of the suet crust, lemon and tangy luscious sauce.

Type 2 puddings – Steamed Suet Pudding, sponge type.

(100 grams/4 ounces) All-purpose flour
(1/4 teaspoon) salt
(1.5 teaspoons) Baking powder
(100 grams/4 ounces) breadcrumbs
(75 grams/3 ounces) Caster sugar
(75 grams/ 3 ounces) Shredded suet or suet substitute (i.e., Vegetable Suet, Crisco, Lard)
(1) large egg
(6 to 8 tablespoons) Cold milk

1. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into bowl.
2. Add breadcrumbs, sugar and suet.
3. Mix to a soft batter with beaten egg and milk
4. Turn into a buttered 1 liter/ 2pint pudding basin and cover securely with buttered greaseproof paper or aluminum foil.
5. Steam steadily for 2.5 to 3 hours
6. Turn out onto warm plate, Serve with sweet sauce to taste such as custard, caramel or a sweetened fruit sauce.

Variants:
Spotted Dick - Add 75g/ 3oz currants and 25g/1 oz of mixed chopped peel with the sugar.
Syrup or Treacle or Marmalade Pudding – put 2 Tablespoons of golden syrup, treacle or marmalade at the bottom of the bowl before adding pudding mix.
My Fair Lady Pudding – Add finely grated rind of 1 medium orange or lemon with the sugar.
Ginger Pudding – replace the sugar with 100g/4oz of treacle, and add 1/2 tsp ground ginger.

Thank you for visiting Tasty treats!! See you soon with another recipe..

Have a great week ahead!

Bakewell Tart er... Pudding for Daring Bakers!

Revealing the Daring Baker Challenge for the month of May - Bakewell Tart er.. Pudding!!

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

I just had to include this quote from our forum about what this tart er.. pudding is - Someone once said something like “The Bakewell pudding is a dessert. The Bakewell tart is that girl over there.” Flan-like desserts that combine either sweet egg custard over candied fruit or feature spiced ground almonds in a pastry shell have Mediaeval roots. By the latter half of the 1800s, the egg custard evolved into a frangipane-like filling; since then the quantity of jam decreased while the almond filling increased.

My experience:

This month I got a chance to finish my challenge early, I mean in the first week itself. We had been invited to a gathering planned at our friends house, with another couple who were also our close friends. They had always wanted to try my daring bakers creations and so I decided this is the perfect chance to give them a taste of what they see on all these blogs!! But I wanted a taste of this before I took it over. So in the same afternoon, at the same time, I made a smaller 5" tart for the taste test and a large 10" tart for taking over to the party!

I accomplished quite a few firsts from this challenge, my first pastry crust, my first tart, and ofcourse my first tart er... pudding!

I made the sweet crust pastry according to the instructions (one complete recipe for the 10" tart and half the recipe for the 5" tart) and chilled it for 30 minutes. I had some trouble rolling out the pastry and I started thinking that maybe I didnt add enough water to hold it all together really well. So I just wet my hands with water and gently kneaded it without crusing it too much. While transferring the pastry crust to the tart pan, the experimental 5" tart took all the beating with a lot of tears and I patched the holes up with extra pastry dough. I was more careful with my 10" party tart and rolled out the crust carefully and managed to tarnsfer it draped over the rolling pin, to the tart pan. Once again the small tears were patched up with extra dough.

The 5" tart took a red plum jam filling and the 10" tart got a strawberry jam filling (both store-bought). I put the crust in the freezer for a few of minutes, to harden. Making the frangipane was a delight!! I ground the almonds in the food processor until very fine. I made the frangipane separately for the two tarts, half the recipe for 5" and the actual recipe for the 10". Once the jam filling was a bit set, I spread the frangipane on top and proceeded to bake the 5" tart first!

The tarts were baked individually. The 5" tart was baked at 400F for about 18 minutes. I didnt use sliced almonds on top while baking. It came out nice and puffy and golden brown, but becuase of my rough handling the part where my thumb poked into the edge of the tart, it got a crack on the side! I reduced the temperature of my oven to 350F for the 10" tart and baked the tart for a total of about 22 minutes. But for the 10" tart, I used sliced almonds on top during the final few minutes of baking. The reduced temperature actually made the tart cook properly and gave an amazing droolworthy light golden brown color.

I took pictures without the decoration and then took the 5" tart out of its pan, and did a chocolate cool whip swirls (which BTW dont look as cool as I thought it would). I also drizzled melted semi sweet chocolate on top. A few whole almonds on the chocolate swirls and the tart was ready to be devoured!! (Note the cool whip melting, becuase I just couldnt wait for the tart to cool down before cutting into it!!!). The 10" was topped with perfectly golden almond slices, which I took to the party!

VERDICT:

We absolutely loved the balewell tart er.. pudding!!! The amazing texture and taste of frangipane has to be mentioned!! My sweet crust pastry, eventhough looked patched up while it was unbaked, was flawless after baking! The cherry jam filling was amazing and went well with the whole thing!! I was sure that the 10" would be just as fine, if not better!! My only complaint was that the jam was too sweet (the complaint has nothing to do with this challenge recipe - its my own fault, really - using the store-bought jam and using it generously!! ;-)). I just cant say enough of the tart er.. pudding. It was awesome, it really was!!!

The 10" tart with the strawberry filling, was taken to the party, and I took a couple of pictures of that, but my dear JM deleted the pictures from the camera unknowingly &^%*@*&!! (Note the tactical use of "dear" before his name!). The reality was that everyone were full to their throats by the time we decided that it was time for desserts. There was an icecream cake which was devoured first and then when it was time for the tart, everyone was stuffed, I know I was!! Anyways, the tart was welcomed with both hands, and I guess everybody loved it. Many commended that the jam was pretty sweet (duh! My bad!!).

I also took a couple of slices from my 5" tart to my work place where my collegue jumped on it and ate both the slices with a happy grin on his face. He remarked that he loved it and it was amazing!! I was worried about the crust, him being a pie lover, but it passed his rating too!! So all in all, I got a lot of taste testers this time around and I would say everyone liked it and some of us loooooved it!!!

One more succesful daring baker challenge and a few more happy customers, with love in their tummies!! :-) Thank you hosts for helping us complete another challenge well done!! Cant wait for the next one.....

Bakewell Tart…er…pudding

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)

Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)

Resting time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 30 minutes

Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)

Bench flour250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability

One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)

One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Assembling the tart:

Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Jasmine’s notes:

• If you cannot have nuts, you can try substituting Victoria sponge for the frangipane. It's a pretty popular popular cake, so you shouldn't have any troubles finding one in one of your cookbooks or through a Google search. That said, our dear Natalie at Gluten a Go Go has sourced some recipes and linked to them in the related alt.db thread.

• You can use whichever jam you wish, but if you choose something with a lot of seeds, such as raspberry or blackberry, you should sieve them out.

• The jam quantity can be anywhere from 60ml (1/4 cup) to 250ml (1cup), depending upon how “damp” and strongly flavoured your preserves are. I made it with the lesser quantity of home made strawberry jam, while Annemarie made it with the greater quantity of cherry jam; we both had fabulous results. If in doubt, just split the difference and spread 150ml (2/3cup) on the crust.

Annemarie’s notes:

• The excess shortcrust can be rolled out and cut into cookie-shapes (heck, it’s pretty darned close to a shortbread dough).

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Prep time: 15-20 minutes

Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)

Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour

30g (1oz) sugar

2.5ml (½ tsp) salt

110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)

2 (2) egg yolks

2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)

15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Jasmine’s notes:

• I make this using vanilla salt and vanilla sugar.• If you wish, you can substitute the seeds of one vanilla bean, one teaspoon of vanilla paste or one teaspoon of vanilla extract for the almond extract.

Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes

Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened

125g (4.5oz) icing sugar

3 (3) eggs

2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract

125g (4.5oz) ground almonds

30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Annemarie’s notes:

• Add another five minutes or more if you're grinding your own almonds or if you're mixing by hand (Heaven help you).

Signing off from Bakewell Tart er.. Pudding heaven, JZ! Check out all my previous Draing Bakers Challenges here! Have a great weekend!!

Pineapple Pudding - the one you'll go nuts for!!

Once in a while I come across a recipe, which I would be absolutely excited about, which I am ready to guarantee success for. It makes me wish you could all taste how awesome it is from my post or I could give you samples from my kitchen! This pineapple pudding recipe is one such recipe which is truly out-of-the-world.

I tasted this awesome dessert at a gathering of friends here in MN. We were all blown away by the delicate flavor of the pudding, wanting more and more. My dear friend Jilby gave me the ingredients that went into the pudding and it was so easy to make. Since then I have made the pudding twice, once for a gathering of some other friends of mine (where it was an instant hit) and last weekend, for JM is absolutely crazy about this one!! I experimented with the recipe to find a proportion of ingredients that suited me.

I cant say enough about this pudding! The pudding is very light with no overwhelming sweetness. The tartness of the pineapple chunks against the pudding works really well. The pineapple flavor as a whole, transports you to an exotic island where it is utmost ecstasy for your taste buds. The cool whip gives a very light airy texture to the pudding where as the heavier elements like crushed pineapple and almonds sink to the bottom. After refrigeration, the pudding sets softly because of the gelatin in the Jello. I know this is one recipe that I am going to make for guests and gatherings.

I guess I would also experiment with other flavors of Jello and its corresponding fruit/s. But I am sure nothing would give you the comfort that you would get from this Pineapple Pudding. Thanks Jilby, for the recipe!!

Recipe (Makes enough for an 8*8 square pan):

Jello, Island pineapple flavor - 1 packet (3oz)
Water - 2 cups, divided
Condensed milk - 1 can (14oz)
Cool whip - 1 tub (8 oz)
Crushed pineapple - 1 can (20oz)
Slivered almonds - 1/2 cup

Method:

Prepare the Jello according to package instructions. For that boil 1 cup of water and add to the jello powder. Mix well to dissolve. Then add 1 cup of cold water and mix well.

To the Jello, add the condensed milk and stir well.

Fold in the cool whip gently until no lumps remain. Use the whisk to do the final mixing.

Drain the crushed pineapple.

Add the pineapple pieces to the pudding mix.

Toss in the almond slivers and stir well.

Transfer the pudding into an 8*8 square pan or individual serving molds.

Decorate with a handful of almond slivers.

Refrigerate atleast for 4 hours, or until the pudding sets.

Serve chilled and enjoy!

Tips:

1. Instead of crushed pineapple, pineapple chunks can also be used.
2. The amount of pineapple can be changed to taste.
3. Use almond slivers or blanched almonds chopped coarsely.
   

I am sending this almond rich dessert to "Lets go nuts : Almonds" being hosted here right on Tasty treats. Check out the event announcement for more details. The last date is March 31, 2009 and multiple entries are welcomed.

Have a great day!

Heart healthy Panna cotta

Panna cotta is Italian for "cooked cream" and is an unbaked, eggless custard which tastes superb. The texture is very smooth and silky and does not feel rich at all. Since this version is a heart healthy one, it uses just half-n-half and does not set hard, but is kind of delicate and wobbly. Usually panna cotta is best served in individual molds or cups and served either out of the mold on a serving platter or within the bowls. I would suggest serving in the bowls themselves because it could loose shape while transferring onto the serving platter. This recipe is so simple, the cooking part was done in a few minutes. Then came the painful wait for the cream to set. Once we took the pictures, it was gone in a matter of seconds. I had just made only half the recipe, we only wish we had more! With only a few ingredients and a quick prep time, this is my kind of recipe! Gustare (enjoy)!!

Recipe (Serves 4):

Half-and-half - 2 cups
Unflavoured gelatin - 1 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Dash of salt
Raspberry sauce or any other sauce

Method:

Pour half-and-half into a 1 1/2 quart saucepan.

Sprinkle gelatin evenly over cold half-and-half.

Let stand for 10 minutes.

Heat the half-and-half mixture over medium-high heat for about 5-7 minutes, stirring constantly, until gelatin is dissolved and the mixture is just beginning to simmer.

Do not allow to boil. Remove from heat.

Stir in the sugar, vanilla and salt until the sugar is dissolved.

Pour the mixture into four 1/2 cup ramekins or 6-oz custard cups.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 4 hours or until set.

When ready to serve, run a thin knife around the edge of each panna cotta.

Dip the bottom of each ramekin into a bowl of very hot water for 5 seconds.

Immediately place a serving plate upside down onto each ramekin, turn plate and ramekin over and remove the ramekin.

Serve with a sauce of your choice.

Source: Betty Crocker Cookbook, heart health edition.

Tips:

1. Wet a mold with cold water and without drying, pour the warm panna cotta mixture into the mold. This usually helps in the easy release of the custard.
2. I served the dessert with pureed strawberry.
   

Butter pudding

My penchant for sweets are a bit on the "strong" side. A small piece of any one of those sweet indulgences will make just about any meal wholesome and interesting. Simple changes in the "presention" of these desserts go a long way, making them unique and appetizing, each time over. I also believe that you cant go wrong while making these sweet creations!! The above reasons make me all the more excited in whipping up a variety of desserts as perfect endings to our family dinner. This pudding is a very simple one which can be put together in under 10 minutes. It is not very rich and wont make you feel guilty while having some. I would not consider this to be a substitution for the more elegant caramel custard pudding, but is definitely enough to create sweet sensations in your mouth!

Recipe (Serves 2)

All-purpose flour/ Corn flour (any of these, or both) - 1/4 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 tbsp
Egg - 1
Butter - 1 tbsp
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Raisins/ Cherries/ Dates/ Cashews - chopped 1/2 cup

Method:

Mix the flour and sugar in a small bowl and make into a fine paste using either water or milk.

Beat an egg and add into the flour-sugar paste and mix well. Add a small pinch of salt.

Boil a cup of milk in a sauce-pan.

Add the mixture of flour and egg to the boiling milk and mix well. It will get thick immediately. Stir well for a few minutes.

Add butter to it and switch off the flame. Mix in the vanilla essence.

Add the chopped dry fruits or nuts to this mixture. You can also make plain butter pudding without any mix-ins or reserve them entirely for garnishing once it is set.

Wet the mould with water and dont dry it. Pour the pudding into the wet mould and allow it to chill in the refrigerate for an hour or more.

The moulds can be individual bowls or a single bigger one, which can then be divided and served.

Transfer the pudding to the serving plates, decorate according to our taste. Chopped dry, or fresh fruits and nuts can be used for decorating.

Enjoy!!

Tip:

1. The pudding pictured was made as a plain butter pudding and decorated with almond slivers and jelly beans.