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Traditional British Puddings

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Another British Tradition: The Pudding

Baked or steamed, whether pie or tart, flan, flummory, or fool, the Traditional British Pudding conjures up images of love and home for many. No meal could ever be complete without this dish, served with warm custard or thick cream.

In this day of ultra healthy eating and doing without, many forget what simple pleasures can be had from finishing a meal with one of these simple dishes.

Ask a Brit what comes to mind when you mention Traditional British puddings and the responses are nearly universal: comfort, home, love, family.

From one woman I talked to, "We used to have treacle sponge, jam sponge, roly poly, spotted dick, bread and butter pudding, proper rice pudding. What I call proper puddings.They remind me of home."

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Contents at a Glance

What is a pudding?
Christmas Pudding
Mum brings in the Christmas pudding
Pudding basins for making your own steam...
Brandy Butter
Bread and butter pudding
Serve your pudding with warm custard
Scales
English Trifle
Almond and Pear Trifle with Cinnamon
More Traditional British Puddings
Cook your own British puddings
Delia
What's your pudding pleasure?
Jam Roly-Poly
Wear your pudding on your tummy
Other lensmasters have been writing abou...
Eton Mess

I've won an award!

My thanks to the Hungry Squidz Choice for this award.

What is a pudding?

bread pudding, sticky toffee pudding, rice pudding, and more

The word "pudding" ofen describes a creamy, soft dessert made on the hob with milk, sugar and eggs and thickened with a starch, such as flour, rice, or cornflour. It also applies to a wide range of sweet dishes including bread pudding and steamed or baked cake-like desserts such as Christmas pudding or the Sticky Toffee Pudding, or the jam rolypoly pictured here.

Desserts in general may be referred to as "pudding", although two of the best-known puddings are savoury: steak and kidney pudding and Yorkshire pudding, the traditional accompaniment to roast beef.

The word can also refer to an old-fashioned sausage such as black pudding.

- Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cooking Step-by-Step

Christmas Pudding

You'll need to make this back in October

1/2 pound raisins
1/4 pound currants
1/4 pound sultanas
1 1/2 ounces plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 pound shredded suet
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
4 ounces fresh breadcrumbs
2 ounces dark brown sugar
3 eggs beaten
1/4 pint liquid to mix - barley wine, beer, or even milk
1 orange, grate rind and juice
1 lemon, grate rind and juice
2 ounces glace cherries
2 ounces mixed candied peel
2 ounces ground almonds
2T black treacle
Good slug of brandy

Mix flour, salt, mixed spice, nutmeg, breadcrumbs, almonds, and brown sugar together.

Now mix together raising, currants, sultanas, suet, cherries, candied peel and grated rind of orange and lemon.

Then blend the two mixtures together. Add juice from the orange and lemon, the beaten eggs and brandy. Add more liquid, enough barley wine or other to give a very moist but not wet mixture.

Now mix in 2T black treacle and leave to stand overnight.

Mix again. Make a wish and add a penny. Put in basins and cook for 4 hours. Cool and store until needed.

This quantity makes 1 X 2 pint basin and 1 X 1 pint basin.

One Christmas Day, steam the pudding for 2 hours. Heat brandy in a ladle until near flashpoint, pour flaming brandy over pudding. Serve with brandy butter.

This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Mum brings in the Christmas pudding

Pudding basins for making your own steamed puddings from Amazon

When making a steamed pudding, you need a pudding basin to steam it in. These will do the trick quite nicely.

Brandy Butter

2 ounces butter, softened
2 ounces caster sugar
1 - 2 dessertspoons brandy ( or more!)
Finely grated nutmeg

Combine butter and caster sugar.
Add brandy until it can't hold any more.
Place in ramekin and sprinkle with nutmeg.

“They remind me of childhood.”

Bread and butter pudding

Use up your leftover bread

60 gm butter, softened
12 slices firm white bread
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
675 ml milk
70 gm sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 medium eggs

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas3. Grease 20cm square glass ovenproof serving dish. Spread butter on bread slices. Arrange 4 slices of bread in dish in one layer, overlapping slightly; sprinkle with 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Repeat, making 2 more layers.

Using a wire whisk or fork, mix the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl until well blended. Pour mixture over bread slices let it stand 10 minutes.

Bake 55 - 60 minutes, until knife inserted in center of pudding comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 30 minutes.

Serve warm or refrigerate to serve cold later.

Serve with warm custard.

Instead of using plain bread, why not use a French brioche.

Add a handful of raisins, some chocolate chips, or spoon a favourite jam between the layers for a sweet change.

Serve your pudding with warm custard

Scales

I have actually found that it is easier to measure out ingredients by weighing them as opposed to spooning them out into measuring cups. If you don't want to deal with converting cups to ounces or tablespoons to grams, then a set of kitchen scales is what you need.

English Trifle

The ultimate comfort food

1 Packet Sponge Fingers
1 pint (550ml) Custard
1/2 pint (300ml) Whipped Cream
1 lb (450g) Raspberries
Raspberry Jam
Sweet Sherry
Almonds, flaked or Walnuts, chopped

Sandwich the Sponge together with the Raspberry Jam and line the bottom of the dish. Warm the Raspberries and spoon them over the Sponge Fingers with a little Sherry to taste. Pour over the prepared Custard and allow to set. Decorate with whipped cream and nuts. Serves 6

Almond and Pear Trifle with Cinnamon

More Traditional British Puddings

You could, if you were so inclined, have a different British pudding every day for a year. You'll find more puddings on these pages.

Pudding & Dessert Recipes: The Foody UK & Ireland Pudding & Dessert Recipes.
Great British Cookbook: A major resource for all those in the UK and around the world who are enthusiasts for British cooking, its past traditions and future potential
The Pudding Club at Three Ways House Hotel, Home of The Pudding Club in the Cotswold village of Mickleton, Gloucestershire: The Pudding Club was founded at Three Ways House Hotel in 1985 to prevent the demise of the traditional great British Pudding.

In the 1980's it seemed as though such delights as Jam Roly Poly, Syrup Sponge, Sticky Toffee Pudding and Spotted Dick were rarities in the face of seductive competition from Black Forest Gateau and Frozen Strawberry Cheesecake.

The Pudding Club and its members can now proudly claim that because of their efforts the great British Pudding has reclaimed an enthusiastic following throughout the country - and beyond.
Home page from Delia Online: Delia is Britain's answer to Martha Stewart. Love her or hate her, if you want an answer to how to make any British food dish, this is the person you always know you can turn to.

The official home of Delia Smith the UK's favourite TV cook including recipes, cookery tips, menu planning, food ideas, discussion boards and more.
Traditional English Puddings for Recipes Ideas Tips Hints Custard, Rhubard, Apple Crumble, Bread and Butter Pudding, Christmas Pudding: Recipes such as Apple Pie, Spotted Dick, Cherry Pie, Apple Crumble, Bread and butter Pudding are just a few of the treats that await you. Our goal is to spread the word about the glory of English Puddings and to put them firmly back on the country's menu. This site is both a resource and a focal p

Cook your own British puddings

ENGLISH PUDDINGS: Sweet and Savoury

by: Mary Norwak

Amazon Price: $9.43 (as of 05/29/2012)

While pulling and following a recipe off the internet is useful, there is just something appealing about thumbing through a well-used cookbook. Looking at each recipe in turn, and deciding which you will try that day.

This book, "ENGLISH PUDDINGS: Sweet and Savoury", will let you do just that.

Enjoy.

Delia

You too can have the benefit of Delia in your kitchen.

Delia's Complete Cookery Course: The Classic Edition (Vol 1-3)

by: Delia Smith

Amazon Price: (as of 05/29/2012)

Delia is a British icon. Think Martha Stewart and Julia Child. A modern day Fanny Craddock. If you want to know how to cook anything British, she will have the answer.

What's your pudding pleasure?

Everyone has their preference when it comes to after dinner treats. What's yours?

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Jam Roly-Poly

a modern way of making a shirtsleeve pudding

200g plain flour
pinch of Salt
1 tbsp Baking powder
115g suet
50g light brown sugar
150ml water
5 tbsp Jam, warmed
2 tbsp Milk
1 tbsp demerara sugar
custard, to serve

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Fill the kettle and put on to boil. Mix the flour, salt and suet together in a bowl. Use a round bladed knife to stir in about 90ml/6tbsp cold water to give a soft dough. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead to make a smooth, elastic dough.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to a 25 x 20cm (10x8in) rectangle. Spread the jam over the surface leaving a 5mm 1/4in border clear of jam.

Brush the border with milk, then starting from a short end roll up the pastry like a Swiss roll. Lay a a large piece of foil out on the work surface, top with a piece of baking parchment. Place the pastry roll seam side down in the centre of the baking parchment and wrap loosely, folding the ends to seal but leave enough room for the pastry to rise.

Place the roly poly in a roasting tin, add 1cm boiling water from the kettle to the roasting tin and bake for 1 hr. Delicious served with custard.

Wear your pudding on your tummy

celebrating puddings

Brits are rightly proud of their puddings and desserts, and well they should be too. Why not celebrate along with them and proclaim to the world that you love British puddings.

Jaffa Cakes Lover Journal

From: So Much Life

Eccles Cake Lover Large Mug

From: So Much Life

See more designs like these on CafePress

“Treacle Sponge and lovely thick, hot custard. Stodgy and comforting!”

Other lensmasters have been writing about British cooking

After reading and rating my page, why not go check theirs out as well.

Eton Mess

a lovely mix of cream, custard, meringues, and fruit

500 g / 1 lb fruit of your choice (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries etc)
500 ml / 1 pint of double or whipping cream
8-12 meringue nests
a little icing sugar (optional, depending on the sweetness of the fruit)
a large decorative glass bowl, individual glasses or dishes to serve

Wash the fruit. If you're using strawberries and they're very large, cut them in half.
Blend half the fruit to a puree. Add the icing sugar if the fruit seems tart, but remember that it needs to cut the richness of the cream.

Whip the cream until it stands in firm peaks.
Crumble the meringues
Fold the pureed fruit into the whipped cream, then add the crumbled meringue.

Pile into a large bowl or individual dishes and scatter with the remaining fruit.
Serve at once, or keep cool until needed.

The creation of the Eton Mess

This is a traditional dessert served at Eton College on the 4th of June for the annual prize giving celebration picnic.

One anecdotal story is that the dessert was invented when a Labrador accidentally sat on a picnic basket in the back of a car on the way to a picnic.

Have any comments to make?

Would you like to share a recipe? Let me know what you think? Just say hello?

Go ahead and leave me a message here.

Then don't forget to go up top and rate this lens.

Reply

slotowngal Dec 18, 2011 @ 7:26 pm | delete

Great pudding recipes and wonderful photos! Really enjoyed checking out your lens. I made a Christmas pudding a few years back... I think I'll give one of yours a try! angel blessed. :-)

Reply

mbgphoto Nov 24, 2011 @ 10:31 pm | delete

Happy Thanksgiving! blessed

Reply

John_Michael Nov 24, 2011 @ 9:33 pm | delete

This sounds great... I'll have make some time to attempt making them

Reply

lestroischenes Nov 24, 2011 @ 5:20 pm | delete

Such a nice selection of puds and so temptingly arranged. Blessed

Reply

---Chazz Nov 23, 2011 @ 4:22 pm | delete

Love the recipes. Blessed and entered in The 2011 Squidoo Food Drive Quest. Also featured on "Wing-ing it on Squidoo," my tribute to some of the best lenses I've found since donning my wings.
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