Traditional English Pudding

After an exciting first challenge in March, I eagerly awaited my second challenge as part of the Daring Bakers. 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. Now, being a vegetarian I was very turned off by the idea of using suet or anything even closely related to it.  Luckily, Esther gave us an option to use butter. The recipe was supposed to be steamed on the stovetop, not baked.  Steaming is a common method used to make a lot of savoury dishes in Indian cooking so the technique was not a new one for me.  I had never steamed a dessert though so that idea was new for me!

I chose a recipe from Wayne Gisslen's "Professional Baking."  It was a simple recipe that happened to be gluten free.  I used small ramekins and it was done steaming in about 20 minutes.  I topped it off with some caramel and the resulting dessert was quite delicious! My husband and I were pleasantly surprised by how yummy it tasted!  I will definitely use this new method of cooking as we get into the warm summer months!  Thank you Esther for teaching me a new way to make dessert!

{STEAMED CHOCOLATE ALMOND PUDDING}

Adapted from "Professional Baking" by Wayne Gisslen

{Ingredients}

Butter 62 grams
Sugar 75 grams
Salt 1/2 gram (1/8 teaspoon) 
 
Unsweetened chocolate, melted 22 grams
Egg yolks 45 grams
Milk or dark rum 15 grams

Almond meal 95 grams
Dry bread crumbs 15 grams

Egg whites 75 grams
Sugar 22 grams


{Procedure}

1. Butter and sugar the inside of 4 small ramekins
2. Cream the butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy.  
3. Mix in the melted chocolate and egg yolks.
4. Add the milk or rum, scraping down to eliminate lumps
5. Blend in the almond meal and bread crumbs
6. Make a soft meringue with egg whites and sugar.  Fold in the meringue into the batter
7. Fill each ramekin 3/4 full with batter.
8. Cover tightly and steam for about 20-30 minute, until a knife inserted in the center of the puddings comes out clean.
9. Serve warm with drizzled caramel sauce

{Notes}

      I halved the original recipe and had enough batter for 5 small ramekins.  My steamer could only hold 4 ramekins so that's all I steamed.  I microwaved the remaining ramekin and it was done in less than 2 minutes.  The microwaved pudding was a little dry, but the steamed ones were very moist. In the future, I would live to try the steaming technique with other cake batters.