Pudding Time

By happy coincidence, ingredients seem to come in packages to make two puddings.

1 bagette, or bread of your choice.
1 5 oz. package each of mixed dried fruit (my favorite is sultanas, rasins, & cranberries), dried apricots, dried pineapple. Dried apples are good, too.
1 5 oz. package candied orange peel
1 cup (or so) raisins
2 cups walnut pieces
2 sticks butter
Apple Pie Spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice)
flour
dark brown sugar
6 eggs
Guinness
Rum

Coarsely chop if necessary and mix dried fruit in a non-reactive bowl and soak at least overnight in rum (preferably black rum; Gosling's Black Seal is my favorite). Stir periodically.

The next day put on 1/2 a stock pot of water to boil, with a small dish in the bottom.

Put a stick of butter in your mixing bowl to soften. Save the paper it came in.

Turn the bagette into bread crumbs in a food processor; you need 3 cups.

Mix the fruit, nuts, and peel, and set aside 1/2 of it for later.

Mix 3 cups bread crumbs, 6 teaspoons of Apple Pie Spice, 2 teaspoons salt, 8 tablespoons self-rising flour, 12 ounces dark brown sugar, and and set aside 1/2 of it for later. With the other half, thoroughly cut in the softened butter with a pastry knife (alternatively, freeze the butter and grate it).

Whisk 3 eggs until frothy, add to dry ingredients, add the fruit & nuts, and about 1/2 a can of Guinness; mix into a spoonable batter. Drink the rest of the Guinness.

Using the butter wrapper, liberally grease the inside of either a pudding steamer (preferably), or a stainless mixing bowl with a good lip around the edge. I also liberally spray mine with Baker's Friend floured oil spray; sort of like Pam. Put the lid on the steamer, or spray (and/or butter) a piece of tin foil, fold a pleat in it, and cover the mixing powl with it, tying it securely under the bowl's lip with string.

Set your pudding onto the plate in the stock pot; the boiling water should come 3/4 of the way up the container, and the lid should fit on the pot. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook 6 hours. With my setup, I need to add 2 cups boiling water at the halfway mark.

After six hours of steaming, remove the pudding, and let it cool a bit in it's container to fully set up. Turn it out onto a plate, and let it cool completely uncovered; overnight is OK. Don't worry about it drying out; that'll be covered in the next step.

Once cool, return the pudding to it's container, and liberally pour a cup or so of black rum on it; particularly around the edges so it seeps down between the pudding and the sides of the container. Let it sit a while to soak up all of the rum.

Turn out onto a plate or cutting board covered with plastic wrap, and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Set in the back of the fridge to age. Don't worry; it won't spoil.

Tomorrow, repeat the process with the other half of the ingredients you set aside today.

Solstice night or Christmas Day, unwrap and steam in it's original container for two hours (you might be able to microwave it, but be careful not to turn it into a giant crouton. A small cup of water in the microwave with it might help). Turn out onto a deep plate with a high lip. Warm (don't boil) a 1/2 pint or so of brandy, douse the lights, pour over the pudding, set it alight and ceremoniously process to the table, preferably led by a piper. Serve with warm custard sauce (I use Bird's), hard sauce, or clotted cream (not very traditional, but vanilla ice cream works quite well, too).

Ok...now...am I feeling adventurous enough to try this this year...

:: ponder:: I think I am.

I should dig out the steamed cherry pudding I found in my granny's cook book...it's kinda similar.

Try it; all you really need is a stainless mixing bowl, tin foil, string, and a pot big enough to hold it.

Besides the Solstice puddings awaiting their fate, I've an orange pudding to go to a friend's house this weekend (our oranges are coming in), and a traditional spotted dog which I'll have some for breakfast (it's actually called "spotted dick", but my wife dislikes the name).

'I won't be introduced to the pudding, please,' Alice said rather hastily, 'or we shall get no dinner at all. May I give you some?'

But the Red Queen looked sulky, and growled 'Pudding--Alice; Alice--Pudding. Remove the pudding!' and the waiters took it away so quickly that Alice couldn't return its bow.

However, she didn't see why the Red Queen should be the only one to give orders, so, as an experiment, she called out 'Waiter! Bring back the pudding!' and there it was again in a moment like a conjuring-trick. It was so large that she couldn't help feeling a LITTLE shy with it, as she had been with the mutton; however, she conquered her shyness by a great effort and cut a slice and handed it to the Red Queen.

'What impertinence!' said the Pudding. 'I wonder how you'd like it, if I were to cut a slice out of YOU, you creature!'

It spoke in a thick, suety sort of voice, and Alice hadn't a word to say in reply: she could only sit and look at it and gasp.

'Make a remark,' said the Red Queen: 'it's ridiculous to leave all the conversation to the pudding!'

And which side of the mushroom did you eat from????

How gorgeous, Emmet!

Was this the spotted dog? I notice the raisins. Bet it was dee-licious!