Feeds six, greedily - 20 minutes to prep; two hours to steam



Ingredients:-

  • 8 tbsp marmalade (not too dark)
  • 4 tbsp golden syrup
  • Small knob of butter
  • 150g plain flour
  • tsp baking powder
  • 3 slices thick, white bread, crusts cut off, and torn into small pieces
  • 120g suet (or veggie suet)
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp poppy seeds
  • Reasonable pinch of salt
  • Few drops vanilla essence
  • 2 free-range eggs
  • Around 220ml milk
  • Cream or vanilla ice-cream to serve

Method:-

  • Use the butter to grease a two-litre china pudding basin. Spoon half the marmalade and all the golden syrup into the bottom and give it a stir.
  • In a big mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, pieces of torn bread, suet, sugar, poppy seeds and salt.
  • Separately, in a smaller bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla essence, milk and the last of the marmalade. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the egg mix in, gradually combining to make a smooth batter.
  • If the batter has come out very thick, add a splash more milk to loosen it up a touch, to what is called "dropping consistency". Then ladle it on top of the marmalade in the bottom of the basin.
  • Loosely cover with greaseproof paper and then a layer of foil and secure with string just under the lip of the basin (the greaseproof stops it sticking and the foil stops water getting in).
  • Arrange a few pastry cutters, or spoons or anything metal and reasonably low, in the bottom of a saucepan big enough to hold the basin, plus water to come about halfway up. Don't worry if you can't get a lid on – tight-fitting foil is OK too.
  • Sit the basin on your metal arrangement, pour in hot water to halfway up, cover with a lid/tight foil and bring to a boil. Once you see steam, turn it down to a simmer and, apart from checking the water level every now and then, forget about it for two hours.
  • Turning it out is simple and impressive – just run a knife around the edge, and turn upside down.

Note:-

C.Mict10