Gingerbread Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce
A recipe from an old cookbook I found in a charity shop called The Way To A Good Table – Electric Cookery by Elizabeth Craig published back in 1937 by The British Electrical Development Association Inc. The pudding was dead simple to make, the only tweak on my part being an extra teaspoon of ground ginger. The pudding takes several hours to steam but at a time of lockdown during the current coronavirus pandemic, time isn’t really an issue at the moment. When the pudding had cooked, I knew it was going to be good! The warm, heady gingerbread aromas, deeply inhaled, were lush. Served simply with a butterscotch sauce. A drizzle of cream or scoop of vanilla ice cream would go nicely!
Serves 4.
Ingredients:
57g self-raising flour
85g dark brown sugar
168g treacle or golden syrup
142ml milk
170g fresh breadcrumbs
1 egg
85g shredded vegetable suet
28g crystalised ginger in syrup, chopped
2 tsp ground ginger
a pinch of salt
butter, for greasing
1. Put the breadcrumbs, suet, flour, sugar, ground ginger and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir until well blended. Put the milk and treacle in a saucepan and heat gently until the treacle has melted but don’t boil. Pour into the mixing bowl and mix with the dry ingredients. Beat the egg then mix that into the dry ingredients.
2. Grease a pudding basin with butter then pour in pudding mixture. Cover with a layer of baking parchment then a layer of tin foil and tie with string.
3. Steam for 3 hours.
4. To check the pudding is cooked, insert a skewer, it should come out clean. If it isn’t continue steaming the pudding. Alternatively, place the pudding in the oven pre-heated to 150°C (fan-assisted) and cook for a further 10 to 15 minutes and test with a skewer again before serving.
5. To serve, turn the pudding out onto a plate and serve with butterscotch sauce.
For the butterscotch sauce:
50g butter
110g golden syrup
110g soft dark brown sugar
150ml double cream
a few drops of vanilla extract
Put everything except the vanilla extract and cream into a heavy saucepan. Heat moderately stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Let the pan simmer for 5 minutes. Pour in the cream and add the vanilla extract, stir until the cream is well blended in and allow the pan to froth a little. Remove the pan from the heat and serve.
