Skip to main content

Speedy Steamed Pudding


One of the highlights of being in catered halls for a couple of years at university was the sponge puddings. Great big sheets of chocolate or vanilla sponge, carved into hefty blocks and doused with thick custard. The main courses were edible at best, but those puddings would fill you up for a week.

Good solid puddings, whether baked, steamed or boiled, have been a mainstay of English cooking for centuries. Something about the cold, damp, dark winters inspired British cooks to endless variations on suet, jam, currants, custard and other comforting ingredients. Once I left the nurturing environs of my parents' house and university halls, pudding stopped being an everyday affair and became a more haphazard, if-I-feel-like-making-any event. And steamed puddings especially, with their two hours over simmering water, don't really lend themselves to spur of the moment dessert-making.

However, technology has moved on since those first days of puddings. I'd been vaguely aware that you could cook a steamed pudding in the microwave, but only recently tried it. The perfect instant pudding! Two minutes for the pudding, two minutes for custard, and there you have dessert for two.



Microwave sponge pudding

2 oz butter or margarine
2 oz sugar
1 egg
2 oz self-raising flour
2 tbsp milk

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg. Stir in flour and milk. Put into a 2-pint pudding basin and cover. Cook on high power 2-5 minutes. Serve hot with custard.

I used a 1-pint basin because that was what I had, and it worked fine. Or a Pyrex bowl would work too. I also put 2 tbsp golden syrup at the bottom of the basin, and you can put jam at the bottom or mix in raisins or chocolate chips or ginger - endless variations.
Labels:

Comments

marisa8675 said…
I'm so confused with British pudding/custard. Pudding in the U.S. is not cake-like at all. I must try this...it looks so tasty, but hearing the term pudding confuses me!

Like my jello confusion. I asked Paul (british hubby) to make Roma a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for school. The next day I had about 10 teachers come up to me (facebook, email, etc.) and ask if making a peanut butter and jello sandwich is a British thing. No-its not, and my poor daughter got stuck eating a horrible sandwich because of our communication breakdown over jelly/jello & jam!
11 May 2011 at 10:14
John Evens said…
You rate steamed pudding as a highlight? Generally me experience of institutional steamed puddings did not make the highlights list... Still, I will be having Kristal try this recipe!
11 May 2011 at 16:37
Kristal Dawn Evens said…
Hhaha. He'll have me try this. :) I will be trying this soon! But how do you make a good custard...?
12 May 2011 at 12:17
Sally Eyre said…
Thanks - I've been looking at crockpot/slow cooker versions, but this'll do nicely!
23 May 2011 at 02:21
Sally Eyre said…
Just tried it - 3 minutes and yummy. Si is just making the custard - thanks.
28 May 2011 at 02:42
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One hundred churches

About the middle of January, I was walking to school one afternoon when it occurred to me that I must have visited quite a few churches on my explorations. I started counting them. But I quickly ran out of fingers, so when I got home I plotted them on Google Maps. Not only was the number much higher than I was expecting, it was also tantalisingly close to one hundred. Only a few dozen to go. So of course, every walk since then has had to include at least one church! Last Monday I visited my hundredth church: St John the Baptist, Dethick. It was a beautiful little 13-century building with an unusual tower - I was glad it had claimed the 100 spot. I haven't been inside every church. Sometimes they were locked; sometimes I was in a hurry and didn't try the door. St Leonard's Church in Alton had bellringers practicing, and I almost interrupted a funeral when I stuck my head through the door of St Mary's, Marston-on-Dove. A few, such as St Oswald's, Ashbourne, and St Wys...
Post a Comment
Read more

Derwent Valley Heritage Way: Steep drops ahead

It's been a long time since I fitted that much up and down into an eight-mile walk! 740m of steep climbs and steps. My legs were not very happy with me the next day. Between Matlock and Cromford, the Derwent River runs through a deep valley, with Matlock Bath - a landlocked town which pretends to be a seaside resort - down at the bottom. The ridge of high ground used to run all the way round to Scarthin Rock, cutting off Cromford from the rest of the valley, until somebody blasted a hole through it to build the A6. Matlock Bath: pavilion and amusement park I started in Cromford and climbed over the ridge at Harp Edge, then followed a path along through the woods, with the ground dropping sharply away to my right. There were a few small caves among the trees. At Upperwood someone had thoughtfully provided a bench. I wasn't in need of a rest just yet, though. In fact, I was feeling so bouncy that I went down an entirely unnecessary flight of steps, instead of staying on the reaso...
Post a Comment
Read more

Limestone Way - the end! (for now...)

Bonsall is a pretty little village just up the road from Cromford. It was the centre point for my final Limestone Way walk. First I walked one way, back towards Ible, then I walked the other way to Matlock. I started at the fountain and climbed up to a tree in which a mistle thrush was singing loudly (helpfully identified by the Merlin app). A few fields took me across to the hamlet of Slaley. Then there was a pleasant walk through the woods, which dropped steeply to my left down to the Via Gellia. At Dunsley Springs the stream went right over the edge.  I made my way down more gradually, and then was faced with the long climb up again to the point near Leys Farm where I was rejoining the Limestone Way. Tree down! Rejoining the Limestone Way Once I'd reached the top, it was a very pleasant walk across dry grassy fields. There were signs of old mining activity, which suddenly made the ground feel less solid under my feet - how many holes were hiding under the turf? Back at Bonsall, ...
Post a Comment
Read more