I made this on Saturday evening, enjoying listening to the pop pop pop sound of the lid on pot as the pud steamed away for 2 hours while I listened to Radio 5 Live.  There was a really frank and open phone in hosted by Alec McGivern on the failed English bid for the FIFA World Cup in 2018, but I must admit that I sympathise with Niall Quinn and his view that those who disclosed corruption at FIFA prior to the announcement of the winners of the FIFA World Cups should explain to those football fans in Newcastle and Sunderland why they did it and whether they really believe that they were right to push for disclosure in a way that could harm the “now failed” bid.  They need, also, to explain to those in the North East who could have benefitted from any investment in local infrastructure and sport in the build up to a World Cup where that hope for jobs and change will now come from.  There are times to talk and there are times to keep stum, and this surely was one of those times to wait for a better moment.  I accept that there might have been no change in the result, but it still sticks in the craw.

Anyway back to the Steamed Ginger Sponge Pudding, this is a dark and rich sweet steamed pudding.  It is moist and succulent with a satisfying heaviness, rather than a dry lightness that many modern puddings have.  I think that hearty body comes from the suet, whereas many recipes now seem to exclude the suet and use self raising flour, breadcrumbs and butter to make more of a cake than a traditional buxom sweet.

Recipe For Steamed Ginger Treacle Sponge

3 tbsp golden syrup
1tbsp black treacle
1tbsp ground almonds
225g / 8 oz plain flour
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g / 3 oz suet
50g / 2 oz light muscovado sugar or soft brown sugar
2 tsp organic Fairtrade ginger powder
½ tsp organic Fairtrade cinnamon powder
¼ tsp sea salt
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
25g / 1 oz golden syrup
25g / 1 oz black treacle
75 ml / 2 ½ fl oz / ⅓ cup full fat milk

Prepare a 1 litre (2 pint) pudding basin by placing greasing lightly the whole basin with butter or sunflower oil.

Add the golden syrup and treacle to the bottom of pudding bowl.  Sprinkle the ground almonds over the top of this.

Add Golden Syrup And Treacle To Pudding Basin

Sieve the plain flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl.  Add the muscovado sugar, ginger, cinnamon and sea salt, and mix thoroughly.  Make a well and add the egg, golden syrup, treacle and milk and stir the mixture together to thick consistency.

Mix The Ingredients Together

Pour the mixture into the prepared, greased pudding basin over the ground almonds.

There should be about 4cm / 1 inch space at the top of the basin for the sponge to rise into.  Now cover the sponge mixture: cut a square of baking parchment and grease one side; place this over the top of the pudding basin; cut a larger piece of aluminium foil and place this over the top; tie the covering down with a piece of string wound around the basin twice and then knotted.

Prepare The Pudding For Steaming

Steam in a pan with boiling water for 2 hours, topping up the pan as necessary to keep the level roughly consistent.  If cooking earlier then reheating, reheat by steaming for 1 hour or nuking in the microwave for a few minutes.

Turn out onto a warmed plate and serve with custard.

Steamed Ginger Sponge Pudding

Serve With Custard

For me, I spent last Saturday in the perfect place – in the kitchen, listening to sport on BBC Radio 5 on our digital radio and baking.  It was the turn of Hermé’s Raspberry And Chocolate Tart.  The end result was sheer perfection – bittersweet flavours from 72% cocoa dark chocolate  from Trinatario cocoa beans (a natural cross between the traditional Criollo and Forasteros cocoa beans), with the succulent, melting richness of the chocolate filling that only just holds itself together; these are balanced against the tart, fruitiness of raspberries.  What is perhaps even more amazing is that it is actually really quite simple to make. 

I don’t have much more to say, except just make it for someone special and wow them, but make sure it is for someone you want to impress.

For the crust:

Prepare and bake a 22cm / 8¾ inch tart shell from Sweet Tart Dough, cooled to room temperature per previous blog

For the filling:

55g / ½ cup ripe raspberries
145g / 5oz bittersweet chocolate (I used Green & Black’s dark cooking chocolate)
115g / 4oz unsalted butter, chopped into cubes
1 large egg, at room temperature, stirred lightly with fork or whisk
3 large egg yolks, at room temperature, stirred with a fork
2 tbsp caster sugar

Preheat oven to 190^oC / 375^oF.

Sprinkle the raspberries into the cooked tart crust.

Baked Tart Pastry With Raspberries

Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over boiling water and carefully melt the butter separately in a pan.  Allow them to cool to a touch warm temperature or 60^oC / 104^oF.

Using a small hand whisk, gently stir the egg into the melted chocolate; don’t be vigorous as you are not trying to get air in, just to mix thoroughly.

Pouring egg into melted chocolate

Mixing eggs into melted chocolate

Next, add the caster sugar and stir that in.

Finally, work in the melted butter.

Pour the chocolate mixture over the raspberries in the tart shell.

Pouring chocolate ganache over raspberries

Bake the tart for 11 minutes.  This gives you a tart that is still a bit wobbly in the centre.  Leave to cool on a rack.  Serve warm after settling for about 10 minutes or cool and have cold.  I actually prefer it cold and a bit more dense the next morning – great for breakfast on a Sunday morning!

Raspberry & Chocolate Tart Just Out The Oven

Serve with extra red raspberries and/or cream or crème anglaise.

Raspberry & Chocolate Tart With Raspberries & Cream

This is one of our firm family favourites and used to be my grandfather’s favourite pudding, as well.  I made it the other weekend for my parents as my dad says he never gets it cooked for him.  Here’s how we did it:

Ingredients

290ml / ½ pint full fat milk, ideally organic
15g / ½ oz butter, ideally organic
30g / 1 oz organic Fairtrade caster sugar
60ml / 4 tablespoons white breadcrumbs
Grated rind of 1 lemon
2 free range eggs, separated into whites and yolks
1tsp Steenbergs organic Fairtrade vanilla extract
30ml / 2tbps raspberry jam or raspberries in a sauce, warmed to make runny
110g / 4 oz organic Fairtrade caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180^oC /350^oF.

Warm the milk then add the butter and sugar.  Stir it all with a wooden spoon until the sugar has all dissolved, then add the breadcrumbs and lemon rind.

Seperate the eggs.  Whisk the eggs gently by hand and add the Steenbergs organic Fairtrade vanilla extract into this.  When the breadcrumbs mixture has cooled down a bit, stir in this egg yolk mixture thoroughly.  Pour the breadcrumb custard mix into a pie dish and leave to stand for 30 minutes somewhere cool.

Put into the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until set.  This can be done in a bain marie for even more exacting results, but it doesn’t need it if you watch over it.  Remove and allow to cool.

Reduce the oven to 150^oC /300^oF.

Using the warmed jam, spread this over the top of the set breadcrumb-custard base.  At my parents, we used some frozen raspberries from the garden which we warmed through and then added some sugar to; this was less sweet than using raspberry jam and had a better mouth feel or texture, but maybe are less close to hand.

Whip the egg whites until stiff and then whisk into this about 2 teaspoons of the caster sugar.  Whisk again until very stiff and then fold in all but ½ teaspoon of caster sugar.  Pour this over the top of the base, then sprinkle over the remaining caster sugar.

Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes until the meringue is set and lightly brown at the edges.

You could serve this alone, as we do, or with a luxurious clotted cream or even vanilla infused whipped cream.

I eventually found a Gordon Ramsay recipe on line which I have tweaked to be a bit more interesting as his recipe appeared – at least on paper - to be quite bland.  It only used 2 quinces so I still need to find a way of cooking the rest – I don’t want to have to make quince jelly.  We had it for our pudding after a delicious Sunday roast beef, roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings, which was gluttonous but very satisfying.

For the topping:

200g/ 7oz quince (about 2 large ones), peeled and diced small to 1cm max., removing the tough core
100g/ 4oz Fairtrade caster sugar
300ml/½ pint water
1 Fairtrade cinnamon quill
3-4tbsp golden syrup
2 balls stem ginger, diced small to 1cm max.
1tbsp ground almonds

For the pudding:

140g/ 5oz softened butter
140g/ 5oz Fairtrade caster sugar
140g/ 5oz self-raising flour
½ tsp mixed spice
Grated zest of 1 orange
3 free range eggs
1tbsp full milk, i.e. not semi-skimmed/skimmed

Start by buttering well a 1.2 litre pudding basin

Dissolve the 100g of caster sugar in the 300ml of water and heat to simmering point.  Add the cinnamon quill and hubble away for 5 minutes.  Now add the quince pieces and simmer for about 20 minutes until soft.  Remove from the heat and sieve, getting rid of the sugar syrup.

In a bowl, mix the cooked quince and stem ginger until mixed throughly and then put these into the bottom of the pudding basin, levelling it out.  Add the golden syrup and let this settle into the nooks and crannies.  Sprinkle the surface over with ground almonds to act as a slight barrier.

While the golden syrup is oozing down into the quince-ginger, put all the other ingredients into a food processor and mix until it looks like batter.  Spoon this over the ground almonds and smooth flat.

Cut a piece of baking parchment to fit over the top with some extra and grease one surface with butter.  Put a pleat into it.  Lay this over the top of the pudding basin.  Next get a larger piece of aluminimum foil and put a pleat in this and lay it over the top of the parchment.  Scrunch it down around the edges to seal and then tie it down with some string.

Steaming hot pud just out of the pot!

Put the pudding bowl in a large pan, fill pan to half way up the pudding boil with boiling water from the kettle.  Put the top on the pan and heat the water to boiling temperature, then reduce heat to a strong simmer and steam for 1½ hours, checking the water levels all the time.

Serve immediately with custard.