Chocolate, Marmalade and Ginger Steamed Pudding | Guest Recipes | Nigella's Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is a steamed pudding and why is it called a pudding? ›

Steamed pudding isn't the custard-like “pudding” you might assume, but a soft, moist, cake-like treat. Steamed puddings are a traditional British dessert at Christmastime. (“Bring us some figgy pudding!”) For wealthy Brits, steamed plum puddings were lavish affairs, loaded with eggs, butter, spices and even brandy.

Delia Smith says, “Don't let the water under the steamer ever come off the boil — this can make a pudding heavy. You must make sure the water is topped up out of a boiling kettle.

Use a small upturned heatproof saucer at the bottom of your pan to protect your pudding bowl from the intense heat (which may cause your basin to crack). As long as there is a gentle simmer and steam is being created in your pan then your water is hot enough to cook your pudding.

Aside from the traditional method in a saucepan, there are lots of ways to steam a pudding. You can use a pressure cooker, microwave or bake in the oven in a water bath.

Puddings made for dessert can be boiled and steamed puddings, baked puddings, bread puddings, batter puddings, milk puddings or even jellies. In some Commonwealth countries these puddings are known as custards (or curds) if they are egg-thickened, as blancmange if starch-thickened, and as jelly if gelatin-based.

American puddings are closer to what the Brits would call "custard." A British pudding is a dish, savory or sweet, that's cooked by being boiled or steamed in something: a dish, a piece of cloth, or even animal intestine.

The puddings can usually tolerate some extra steaming time, though it should be 4 hours rather than 12. Nigella mentions that the pudding becomes more sticky and dense as it steams.

Make sure the base of the pudding bowl is not in direct contact with the base of the pan. -Add enough water to reach halfway up the sides of the pudding bowl. -Cover the pan tightly with the lid. Steam the pudding according to the recipe instructions.

Check the pudding is cooked by inserting a skewer through the foil and parchment lid into the centre of the pudding. If the skewer still has some wet mixture on it, return the pudding to the steamer for a further 15-20 mins, then check again.

As for all puddings, it should be stored in a cool, dry place until Christmas Day. For the US our preference would be to use Pyrex mixing bowls for steaming Christmas puddings.

What bowl can I use to steam a pudding? ›

The large pudding fills a 1.7 litre/3 pint/1 1/2-quart pudding basin. Nigella suggests using a plastic pudding basin with a clip-on lid as these are easy to use and not too expensive. If you have difficulties finding a pudding basin then a Pyrex bowl, or similar heatproof glass bowl, could be used.

If the pudding has a very big dip in the centre then it could be that it was not cooked quite thoroughly enough and this could happen if the water was not kept at a brisk simmer or if the pan was allowed to boil dry at any point.

If you can't find a lidded basin then it is also possible to use a ceramic or heatproof glass bowl or basin of a similar capacity but you will need to wrap the basin before steaming.

Our answer. It is possible to make Nigella's Ultimate Christmas Pudding using vegetable shortening (such as Crisco, Trex, Flora White, Cookeen or Copha) instead of suet (which is made from beef fat). You use exactly the same quantity in vegetable shortening but it needs to be coarsely grated before you use it.

However, custard (and therefore flan) is made with eggs and sweetened milk alongside the cream, and flan itself includes caramel. On the other hand, pudding is made with sugar and some kind of starch to thicken the mixture (usually flour or cornstarch).

steamed pudding in British English

(stiːmd ˈpʊdɪŋ ) noun. cookery. a traditional pudding containing fat, sugar, eggs, flour, and other ingredients, which is steamed.

The British claim pudding as part of their culinary heritage. Medieval puddings (black and white) were still mostly meat-based. 17th century English puddings were either savory (meat-based) or sweet (flour, nuts & sugar) and were typically boiled in special pudding bags.

The reason for using the word 'pudding' instead of dessert is actually based on the British class system. Traditionally, pudding referred to homely and rustic desserts that were commonly eaten by the lower classes, such as spotted dick and rice pudding.