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.
Okay, so I can't hide my disappointment. I have been a DB for a year and haven't yet made anything with yeast. I have made some great challenges, puff pastry, tuilles, nanaimo bars, but no yeasty goodness. I skipped, unintentionally mind you, February which was Tiramisu, which I love but just couldn't make all those components with my travels to my parents. Then came some sort of Citrus Tart that no one would eat but me, and I had a thousand cookies to decorate. So...here we are on the cusp of getting booted if we don't get baking. And this month's challenge is English Pudding.
It was quite a shock when I read the beginning of the recipe and saw suet. I have no doubt that this fat makes an amazingly flaky crust, and it is obviously a very British ingredient. But there was no way I could go there. Suet is for birds. It is the white fat found in sheep and cows and it surrounds the kidneys and loins. 'Nuf said. Call me closed minded, I can live with that, I suspect it is not monounsaturated fat. We would roll it in seeds and make bird feeders in those cold Iowa winters. I just couldn't eat it. And I am fairly certain I could never find it in Memphis without a special order. So as I watched people post thier puddings in the forum I was delighted to discover a steamed chocolate pudding made with butter and chocolate. BINGO! Something I can easily track the nutrition of, something I can portion control, and most importantly something that will make Christina sing with joy!
Steamed Chocolate Pudding
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate
1 T butter
8 oz flour (225g)
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
pinch salt
1 egg
4 oz sugar (120g)
120 ml milk with 1 teaspoon vanilla
MY ADDITION: 1 Tablespoon Trablit coffee extract
It calls for a 1.5 pint pudding basin. Basically 6 cups, but I chose ramekins, they need to be lightly greased, I used butter. Melt chocolate and butter. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Beat egg and slowly add sugar, beating until creamy. Add melted chocolate. Stir in dry ingredients alternately with milk and vanilla/Trablit. Fill ramekins ⅔ full. Cover ramekins tightly with foil or greaseproof paper, which would be parchment, and secure with string. I did that to 2, but after wrestling the paper, I decided to foil the other 2.
Put into pot and immerse into water halfway up the sides. Boil and then simmer for 1½ hours. I simmered only an hour because I used ramekins instead of a pudding basin. Yum. Like a hot cake?! A little whipped cream and chocolate covered espresso bean garnish.
My biggest LeCrueset only held 4 ramekins, so I took the extra batter and baked it. Heck, what's the worst thing that could happen, right? It is like a sponge cake, and has great flavor and texture. I like it!
I got this pudding recipe here. Easy for sure, and no suet! The Trablit can be found here at Surfas, great LA store, actually in Culver City...
And the nutritional info? Well, the whole recipe is 1811 calories, 41 grams of fat, 39 grams of protein and 333 carbs. When you divide it by 6, it really isn't awful. Not exactly the true British Steamed Pudding with a Suet Crust, but a fair attempt and a delicious one at that.
No comments:
Post a Comment