Daring Bakers: A British Pudding

You remember in my last post how I said I made the maramlade for a recipe in a sweet little cookbook full of Lancashire recipes? You remember how I mentioned that a lovely friend from Leeds sent me that cookbook? I don't think I ever truly thanked her as well as I should have for that cookbook. THANK YOU, ANNE!!! This little cookbook is very small but filled with great recipes that I like to imagine being served in a small cottage in the middle of England with a cup of tea and a story from an old granny. It's home cooking that I pretend my Nana would have made for me if we lived across the pond.

  

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. We were given free-range to make whatever pudding we wanted so long as it was steamed. We could go savory or sweet, prepared for breakfast or dessert. Nothing else mattered.

I of course was scared to death. This was my first baking challenge. I didn't know where to get suet from. I don't even have a regular butcher that I can go to with these crazy requests (I think it's time for me to find one though). I decided to go with a dessert pudding and came across the one I used in the little Lancashire cookbook. Since I had also come across the marmalade recipe only a week or two ago I knew it would be perfect for my challenge. Now, the pudding truly was not my favorite thing in the world. It actually worked even with all of my reservations about it, but I just wasn't loving the texture. I even asked my hubby, "Is it a fail if the recipe worked but you didn't like it or a success that you just didn't happen to enjoy?" He says it's a success, and who knows. Maybe you'll like it better than I did.

Millers Marmalade Pudding

Recipe from Favorite Yorkshire Recipes, adapted by me

3 Tbl orange marmalade (or rhubarb marmalade if you've made it yourself)

4 oz flour

4 oz granulated sugar

4 oz soft margarine (1 whole stick, I used butter)

1 tsp baking powder

2 medium eggs

Sauce

4 Tbl orange marmalade

1/4 pint water/orange juice mixed (I forgot the orange juice but it was fine)

2 tsp arrowroot (I couldn't find any and therefore left this and the next ingredient out)

2 Tbl cold water

1. Place a large pot, big enough to hold your pudding bowl, on the stove filled about halfway (you want enough water to come about halfway up the pudding bowl but not so much that it submerges it). Place a ball of foil or other item that will keep the bottom of the bowl from touching the bottom of the pan (this was not a step in the original that I knew about from reading up on puddings; I just used a large biscuit cutter made of metal that worked perfectly). Begin to heat water on medium heat.
2. Grease a 2 pint heatproof pudding basin and place 3 Tbl marmalade in the base. Put the flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, and eggs into a large bowl, mix, and beat well for 2-3 mintes until soft and of a smooth consistency. Alternatively, use a food processor and process for 30 seconds.
3. Put the sponge mixture on top of the marmalade in the basin. Cover with a circle of greasproof paper and then seal with foil (I didn't have any parchment paper and was forced to cut a circle out of aluminum; it worked just fine but stuck a little so grease it first if you have to do the same).
4. Cover and steam for 2 hours. Prepare the sauce while the pudding is steaming by warming together in a saucepan the 4 Tbl marmalade and water/oj mixture and simmer for 5 minutes. Blend the arrowroot and cold water to a smooth cream and stir in some of the marmalade mix. Return this to the pan and heat, stirring untilt he sauce thickens and clears.
5. Turn out the pudding onto a warm plate and serve hot with the sauce.

My First Marmalade

It may come as a surprise to you, but I don't really care for marmalade. Oh sure, it's nice and citrusy and is almost always a beautiful orange color, but the batch I tasted in Ireland years ago was so overwhelmingly bitter I had to wonder what they did wrong when they made it. After almost six years, I've finally figured it out. They didn't put rhubarb in it!

I came across this super simple recipe on All Recipes while perusing the many rhubarb recipes that are out there. It was rather fortuitous that I found it since I have a very special recipe coming up that is part of my first Daring Bakers' Challenge that also came from a small cookbook sent to me by a very special lady from leeds (thank you again, Anne). This rhubarb marmalade is sweet and a little tart but definitely not bitter.

I only made one minor change this time around, but I've already got high hopes for the next time, and there will be a next time. If you do get adventurous and decide to try to make it for yourself, definitely cut the sugar down by at least half of a cup. It's very sweet, which didn't bother me too much, but others might find it cloying. Enjoy!
 

 
Rhubarb Marmalade
Recipe from All Recipes, adapted by me
 
6 cups chopped fresh or frozen rhubarb
6 cups sugar
2 medium oranges
5 whole cloves

1. Combine rhubarb and sugar in a large heavy saucepan. Grind oranges, including the peels, in a food processor; add to rhubarb mixture. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring often until marmalade sheets from a spoon, about 1 hour.
2. Pour into hot jars, leaving 1/4-in. headspace. Adjust caps. Process in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes.

Lady Rhubarb Strikes Again

I love rhubarb. Ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you that I'm a rhubarb freak. Rhubarb tart? Yes please. Rhubarb jam? Definitely! Rhubarb swizzle stick in a rhubarb flavored soda? Uh...sure. My best friend even calls me Lady Rhubarb (and she is Lady Sassafras, but that's a whole other story). I only know one other person who loves rhubarb more than me (not saying that there isn't someone else out there, just that I only know one). My buddy from the liquor store, J, is always begging me to bring him samples of anything I happen to make with rhubarb in it. He's even got a couple of special requests for when the season finally arrives in Oklahoma (Rhubarb-Mulberry Pie just like his grandma made).

 

Of all the "foods that aren't part of the food group you think they are," rhubarb is by far my favorite. Most people when asked if rhubarb is a fruit will say, "What's rhubarb?" But the rest of us would probably say, "Of course. It's used in pie, isn't it?" It's sort of like tomatoes. It's used primarily as a savory ingredient so we associate it with vegetables even though we know it's a fruit. Rhubarb is so often used for sweet dishes, even though it can be extremely tart, that it's usually associated with fruits. Here's a helpful hint if you're ever having the great fruit vs. vegetable debate (even if it's only with yourselfm I promise I won't judge you): if it has seeds on the inside, then you've got a fruit (that means avocados are also a fruit).

 

Now I know it's not rhubarb season yet (so close!), but this past weekend while getting some groceries for St. Patrick's Day I spied a bucket of rhubarb sitting in the produce section. It was calling to me. "Hey! You with the frizzy red hair! Take us home and make something sinfully delicious with us." Well, alright! I started thinking about the different recipes that I wanted to tackle with my lovely red stalks. I was looking at past recipes done by fellow bloggers and came across a fairly recent recipe done by Tartelette. Then I was immediately transported back to Scotland where I had the most amazing rhubarb crisp the world has ever known. I used Tartelette's Red Berries and Rhubarb Crumble as a guideline to get started but made my own version of the Scottish dessert I had back in November. I also wanted to keep it a little familiar and used my mom's recipe for the crisp topping (I'm sure it's the same as almost everyone else's, but it's what I grew up with and love so I'm using it).

Rhubarb Crisp
Recipe by Tartelette, my mom, and me (inspired by a recipe from Scotland)

For the topping:
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon (next time I'll either do cardamom like Tartelette or ginger just because)
1/2 cup butter, cut into 8 pieces

For the filling:
4 cups fresh rhubarb
2 Tbl cornstarch
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 Tbl honey

1. For the crisp topping: Place the sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl. Add the butter pices and cut it into the dry ingredients using either a pastry blender or two knives (or you could do it the classy way and just use your hands like me, just work quickly so the butter doesn't melt; if it gets too soft, just pop the bowl into the fridge before topping).
2. Preheat oven to 350F.
3. For the filling: First peel the rhubarb and then slice into small pieces (use a peeler very gently so you don't pull too much flash away from the stalks).  In a large bowl, add the rhubarb, cornstarch, lemon juice and zest, and honey. Stir until well mixed being careful not to toss pieces out of the bowl (hey, it happens).
4. Divide the mixture into ramekins or a 9x13 pan. Place an equal amount of the crisp topping on each serving. Place the crisps in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the filling starts to bubble (I started out at 20 and ended up at almost 40 minutes and still didn't end up with the coloring I wanted on top). Serve with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or vanilla custard (my favorite).

On another happy note, I got a new camera so my next recipe will have pictures from that. I know they won't be much better, but I'm enrolling in a photography class this summer to help me learn how to take better pictures. So hopefully soon I'll be bringing you much better pics.

We Be Jammin!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am participating in a jam exchange being held over on Stephchows. There are still a couple of weeks before I actually needed to make the jam, and the fruit looked so good. I couldn't help myself!

The two jams I decided to make were Quadruple Berry and Pineapple-Rhubarb. I wanted something different and bit unique. The idea of Triple Berry sounded so good and was actually going to be the first one I attempted. It consists of strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries...three of my favorites all together. I ended up at Whole Foods pretty early on Sunday morning to pick up the raspberries when I came across my other love: blueberries. "Surely I can add that to my triple berry and it will still taste good," I thought to myself. I grabbed a pint and made my way to the register as I tried to come up with a creative name for the jam. Black and Blue with some Red? Um, no. Bruised Ego Jam? Better. Quadruple Berry? Well, yes that's true. Nothing really stands out to me, so if you can come up with a creative name, I'd be eternally grateful (I might even be convinced to give a jar away to the person who came up with the best name...Hint hint!).

I'm in a love-obsession with rhubarb at the moment so I decided to try something a bit less conventional. I love pineapple and was so happy to come across a recipe that paired the two (I really didn't want to have to go the predictable route and use strawberry). I was a bit concerned that it wouldn't turn out since it called for way less sugar than the berries and absolutely no pectin (this was my first time so I had no idea what I was actually doing).

Overall, I'm happy with the outcomes. The berry jam is by far the better of the two (I'm counting down the minutes until breakfast so I can try it on toast). I actually think I'd like it with a schmear of peanut butter which you all know I just don't like. The rhubarb one is good, not great, but good. I think it would taste better heated up a little and put on a waffle or giant stack of fluffy buttermilk pancakes. I'm still trying to come up with something special to add to the package that I'll be sending to my jam buddy. I'm excited to see what everyone else comes up with, but mostly I'm excited to hear if the person i get likes what I made. Enjoy!

Quadruple Berry
I adapted this recipe from the Triple Berry recipe in the Sure-Jell box

2 pints strawberries, hulled
1 1/2 pints raspberries
1 pint blackberries
1 pint blueberries

7 cups sugar, divided

1 package pectin

1. Be sure all of the berries are cleaned. Crush berries into a large pot and mix together.
2. Mix 1/4 cup sugar with the package of pectin. Add this mixture to the berries and stir. Heat the berries to a rapid boil.
3. Add the remaining sugar and bring back to a rapid boil for exactly one minute. Remove from heat.
4. Fill your sterilized jars to within 1/4-inch of the top. Place sterilized lid and band on the jar and process for 10 minutes. Allow to rest in a cool dark place for 12 hours or overnight.

Pineapple-Rhubarb Jam
Recipe from Rhubarb Info

8 cups rhubarb, chopped
4 cups sugar
2 cups pineapple, chopped

1. Mix all ingredients together and boil to jam stage, about 30 minutes, being sure to stir the mixture every so often (I would do a little less, maybe begin checking on it at 20 minutes). Pour into sterilized jars and process as you would any other jam.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Tart with Lemon Fluff Topping

I don't claim to be the best chef in the world. I also don't claim to know everything there is to know in the kitchen. My pots and pans may not be the most expensive brand you can find at the store (in fact, my husband bought the set for Christmas last year from JCPenney's...not exactly the gourmet chef's choice). My pictures will never be perfect, even if I were to have a studio style setup in my small apartment and bribed my sister to take all of the pictures (she's seriously got some photo takin' talent). I will claim this: if you join me on this journey, you will not be disappointed. I know I'll make some mistakes along the way, but my successes will hopefully make up for them.

With that said, I'd like to start this blog off right with a variation of a tart I found on David Lebovitz's blog (the man truly is a genius). I'm borrowing his recipe for a strawberry-rhubarb compote that was to be part of a rhubarb tart which got the dreaded FAIL from the man himself. Now when David makes something and claims it a FAIL, and it still turns out amazing, then you know he's onto something. I'm telling you...GENIUS! I'm also borrowing a unique recipe he posted for the tart shell (and I do mean unique...).

To top off this yummy-scrummy rhubarby goodness, I've got a lemony-fluffy-so-sweet-but-oh-so-delicious creamy concoction. My sister and I had a crepe-fest one night shortly after my husband left for his third deployment (the joys of being married to the military...*sigh*). Anyway, we found a recipe for what was called "Lemon Snow Filling." Being that we both adore anything lemon flavored, we rushed straight to the nearest grocery store (Wal-Mart at 8:30 at night is always an interesting experience)...Let me apologize now to the grocery store purists. Wal-Mart is right around the corner from my apartment. I could literally walk there if I wasn't so lazy and didn't live next to a questionable, if not seedy, neighboring apartment complex. I do go to actual grocery stores (my favorite being Petty's Fine Foods...Tulsa, OK does not have the most options for grocery stores, and I have been known to hit up Food Pyramid from time to time. So "Lemon Snow Filling." The recipe came from my very first foray into the world of food: All Recipes. With some tweaking, the filling is absolutely fantastic (although it was really great to begin with).

I hope everyone enjoys the tart as much as I did. My sister doesn't do rhubarb so I couldn't get any kind of opinion on the tart as a whole, but she loved the lemon snow. I think her exact words were, "Omnomnomomnom" but I can't be too sure since she had lemony goodness dribbling out of her mouth (as did I).

Strawberry-Rhubarb Tart with Lemon Topping

Tart Shell
Recipe by David Lebovitz

3 oz (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 Tbl vegetable oil
3 Tbl water
1 Tbl sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 slightly rounded cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 410° F (220°C).
In a medium, oven-safe bowl (Pyrex) combine the butter, oil, water, sugar, and salt.
Place the bowl in the oven for 15 minutes, until the butter is bubbling and starts to turn brown just around the edges.
When done, remove the bowl from oven (be careful!), dump in the flour and stir it in quickly, until it comes together and forms a ball which pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Transfer the dough to a 9-inch tart mold with a removable bottom and spread it with a spatula.
Once the dough is cool enough to handle, pat it into the shell with your hand (David suggests using the heel of your hand, I had better luck with my fingertips). And use your fingers to press it up the sides of the tart mold. Reserve a small piece of dough for patching any cracks (about the size of a raspberry).
Prick the dough all over with the tines of a fork about 10 times, then bake for about 15 minutes or until the dough is golden brown.
Remove from the oven and if there are any sizable cracks, use the bits of reserved dough to fill in and patch them.
Let the shell coolk before using

Rhubarb-Strawberry Compote
Recipe by David Lebovitz

4 stalks (approx. 1 lb) rhubarb, washed and trimmed
10 blushing-red strawberries, hulled and quartered
½ cup brown sugar (light or dark; David used muscovado)
Juice of half a lemon
1 Tbl kirsch or other liquer

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Slice the rhubarb lengthwise in half and cut into 3-inch long batons. Mix in the baking dish with the strawberries and remaining ingredients.
Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 20-30 minutes until the fruit is soft and fully cooked through.
Remove the foil, reduce the heat to 325C° and bake for another 10 minutes.
Allow to cool completely before filling tart shell.

Lemon Snow Filling
Adapted from a recipe on All Recipes

1 package cream cheese, softened
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
Zest from one lemon
Juice from half a lemon
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Place cream cheese in stand mixer. Mix until creamy.
Slowly add powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add zest and juice. Adjust amounts according to tastes
In a separate bowl, whip heavy cream to stiff peaks,
Gently fold lemon mixture into whipped cream.

To assemble, place compote in tart shell and smooth. Top with lemon topping with as much or as little as you want. Enjoy!