Steamed Date Pudding
Introduction
Serves: Serves 8 or more
Ingredients
120g (4 oz) self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
½ tsp mixed spice
90g (3 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature, roughly chopped
30g (1 oz) fresh white breadcrumbs
3 Tbsp soft brown sugar
170g (6 oz) fresh dates, pitted and chopped
Finely grated zest 1 lemon
2 medium (size 6) free-range eggs, at room temperature
1 Tbsp golden syrup (light treacle)
2 Tbsp milk, at room temperature
Custard, to serve (optional)
Method
1 Grease a 5-cup (1.25-litre) china pudding basin with butter. Prepare a paper covering as described below.
2 Sift flour, salt and mixed spice into a bowl. Rub in butter with two round bladed knives or a pastry blender and stir in breadcrumbs, sugar, dates and lemon zest.
3 Whisk eggs with golden syrup and milk, then tip into the dry ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon until smooth.
4 Turn mixture into buttered basin, then cover with buttered paper and tie securely with string. Transfer pudding to a large, deep (rather than wide) saucepan with a trivet or put a small clean cloth under the pudding basin to stop it clattering during cooking. Fill pan with hot water to come about one-third of the way up the basin and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Bring water to the boil, then turn heat to lowest setting and gently steam pudding for 1½ hours. Top up with boiling water from a kettle if water runs low.
5 When ready, remove pudding from pan, snip off string and remove paper. Cover pudding basin with a serving plate, invert and leave for 10 minutes to drop, then remove basin. Serve pudding with hot custard.
Recipe Notes
