Lemon-buttermilk sponge pudding with strawberries

If you are looking for something simple to serve with beautiful summer berries, look no further. These sponge puddings are tart and actually taste of buttermilk, which I can't say of many of the other buttermilk baked goods I make. The texture was like that of a moist baked mousse. I was expecting a layer of cake and a layer of pudding, but that's not what I got and it was a very pleasant surprise. I served these with some of the first local strawberries, and am finally posting it so that you can make it with the last of the strawberries. If local strawberries are finished where you are, don't use those crunchy, white-centred imported ones. Choose another berry or even peaches. Just mix them with a bit of sugar until a syrup forms. Enjoy!
Here's the link to the recipe.

Sheridan's Black and White chocolate pudding for St Patrick's Day

Do we really need a dessert for St Patrick's Day? No, Guinness is not a dessert. Anyway, last year I made some coffee gelee and topped it with cream in a tiny beer glass. This year, I had lots of ideas, but no time. So, I decided on a rich chocolate pudding. It was made in about 10 minutes flat. Now, I am not a huge fan of chocolate pudding, and much prefer custard, but I thought I'd give it another try. I had tried a vanilla pudding a few months ago and found it too starchy, but hoped the chocolate and booze would fix that. I adapted the recipe from this one, where hundreds of commenters raved about it. I read a lot of the comments and they fell into a few categories: those that loved it; those that couldn't get the pudding to thicken; and the disturbing ones. They made weird substitutions like Cool Whip for milk, breast milk, artificial sweeteners, or they had really odd ideas about food chemistry. I don't know why I torture myself by reading comments, but sometimes it's like a car crash and you just can't look away. At least I can't: I'm nosy.

I added some Dutch-process cocoa and used 72% chocolate here. I was glad I was adding the liqueur at the end, as was very thick, even while hot. If you're skipping the alcohol, reduce the cornstarch a bit, or replace it with another liquid to get a wonderful, silky soft pudding. Have you ever tried Sheridan's? It comes in two colours that are separate, but in a fused glass bottle. The black is whiskey-coffee and the white is creamy vanilla. When you pour it, you get a layered drink. And it tastes much better than Bailey's, I think. I put the black in the pudding and the white in the cream top. Hmmm, in looking for photos of Sheridan's, I see that it is hard to find in the USA. Feel free to replace with whiskey and Bailey's.

Source: Tipsy Gifts

Black and White chocolate pudding
Makes 4-6 servings
Black:
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
large pinch salt
2 tablespoons darkest Dutch-process cocoa
3 cups whole milk
6 ounces dark chocolate, melted (I used 72%)
4-6 tablespoons Sheridan's black liqueur
White:
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons Sheridan's white liqueur

Black: Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium saucepan and then slowly whisk in milk until smooth. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until pudding just comes to a boil. Whisk for one minute. Remove from heat and whisk in melted chocolate and liqueur. Strain through a sieve and divide amongst serving dishes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
White: Whisk cream and liqueur together until soft peaks form. Serve puddings with a dollop of cream.

Caramel-topped semolina pudding

What is the difference between semolina and farina? This has been one of the burning questions this month on the French Fridays with Dorie website. Now, I tried to help, but I'm really not sure half the time. I sometimes buy semolina to make pasta (okay, I did once about 10 years ago), but is it fine or coarse? Is it durum semolina? How about I just skip the recipe and make something else on my very long to-do list? Um, please don't go to Wikipedia and tell me what they think. :)

I wasn't sure when I saw the title of this recipe, but you need to read on with Dorie recipes, because the title may actually tell you very little about it. It may even mislead you completely. This dessert is called a semolina cake, but contains no semolina and is not even slightly cake-like. Hmmm. What it did have, though, was an ingredient I was familiar with: Cream of Wheat. I even had some in my cupboard, so I got right to it.

We have been asked not to publish the recipes from this book, but for this pudding you hardly need one. Make cream of wheat as usual, with milk. Add sugar, flavouring and beaten eggs. Pour into a caramel-lined cake pan and bake till it puffs up. Invert, cool, and serve. I did not include the raisins, as my raisin aversion has been well documented here. I used my own vanilla spice extract, which is in a rum base. I also made half the pudding recipe but the full amount of caramel and divided it amongst 3 small ramekins. I could have made 4, as I didn't realize it would puff so much. in fact, mine were like little volcanos in the oven, spouting molten caramel. This is why the oven window is better than TV. Come back on Sunday for some photographic evidence of that.

I really liked it, and didn't find it resembled my winter breakfasts much. It was firm enough to turn out, but soft enough to eat with a spoon. The flavours of rum, vanilla, mace, tonka bean and sapote were understated, but definitely there. I didn't think it needed anything to accompany it, though apparently it's good with pineapple. Perhaps grilled? Even though I doubled the caramel, there wasn't a lot. Usually a custard is baked long and slow in a water bath, then chilled overnight, making lots of runny caramel. This caramel was still quite sticky, and I was able to spin it into all sorts of shapes as I ate it. I refrigerated one overnight to see if it had more, but it didn't--the pudding seems to absorb much of it. Also, the pudding was firmer and not as nice the next day. So, make it and eat it--neither will take long!

Some see the world through rose-coloured glasses--I prefer caramel.

See you Sunday with the Daring Cooks' reveal!

The Daring Bakers get steamy!

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. 

Suet? The stuff we feed to birds? Yup, that's the stuff:) This challenge caused a bit of controversy in the forums, right from the moment it was posted. Some declined to participate this month, while others looked for suet substitutes. Many got right to it and started producing puddings. I wasn't one of those, of course. I thought it sounded like a really interesting challenge, as I had never cooked with suet, but we were having a freak heat wave when it was announced, and the idea of steaming something for 5 hours did not appeal. Luckily (?) the weather reverted to seasonal chilliness and the challenge was on!


I went to the butcher shop looking for suet, and I swear the butcher did a happy dance when I asked for it. He came racing across the store to with a container of veal suet and questions about what I was going to do with it. He was quite happy that I was making something to eat and not bird food with it. Butchers are so enthusiastic about their craft! I don't eat that much meat, so I rarely go to the butcher's, but this one is my new go-to shop. In fact I went back later in the week to get the ingredients for the filling, but first let me tell you about rendering the suet.


Do not do this at home! The suet has no smell when cold, but when heated it immediately filled my apartment with this super-greasy smell. I do believe I sat there for the whole hour it took with a wrinkled up nose, feeling nauseous, and waiting for it to be ready. Of course, this was after I had separated the fat from all the attached membranes, but that part was fine--I'm not squeamish in the kitchen at all. I won't show you any photos of the suet, as it may be harrowing for some (like me--no need to relive the smell). The suet pastry was odourless, though, and very easy to make and work with. 


Now I needed to decide what to fill the puddings with. I decided to go with veal, as I was using veal suet. I know this doesn't make much sense, but bear with me. Most recipes seemed to include chunks of meat, as in steak and kidney pudding. I wondered if a larger cut of meat would work, so I bought some veal shanks and made osso bucco. I seasoned and browned the veal shanks, but removed one and refrigerated it, browned, but still raw inside, for the pudding. I didn't want it to be overcooked inside the crust, and I was afraid this was going to be a very expensive waste, with the price of veal shanks. I cooked one shank in the sauce made with marsala (remember the tiramisu challenge?), reduced and cooled the sauce, and then used it with the reserved piece of veal shank in the pudding.


I lined the 0.5L pudding basin with the pastry and put in lots of the sauce and vegetables, with the veal shank nestled in the middle. I then covered it with more pastry and trussed it like a turkey (actually, wrapped it in pleated wax paper and foil, tied the layers tightly to the bowl, and made a string handle). It was now ready to steam, which I did stovetop in a large pot, with an inch or two of gently boiling water, for 3.5 hours. It was well past bedtime then, so I put it in the fridge and reheated it for dinner the next day by steaming it for an hour.

Not the best photo, but this is the inside of the osso bucco pudding, with some gremolata sprinkled on top. It was delicious! The veal shank I cooked inside the pudding was much more tender and flavourful than the one I cooked on top of the stove. The sauce had that wonderful gelatinous quality and the bone marrow was fantastic with some salt and gremolata. The suet crust, however, I didn't like at all. It browned beautifully, and rose, but it was just a bit odd in texture and didn't seem to have much flavour. Maybe I was still disturbed by the rendering, or maybe it just needed more salt, but I ended up throwing it all away. 


For the sweet pudding, I decided to go with a Sussex Pond pudding. This pudding is made by encasing a whole lemon with lots of brown sugar and butter in a suet crush and steaming until a sauce is formed. I just wanted to make a tiny one, so I used a small Meyer lemon and a few kumquats. 

I sliced the fruit thinly, and refrigerated it overnight with the brown sugar and a few crushed pods of cardamom. The next day, I put it in the crust in a 0.2L pudding basin, layering an obscene amount of butter above and below the fruit. I should only have steamed this for an hour, as it was so small, but I left it for 2 hours, so I did not get the pond effect of the sauce running out. Instead it was a thick marmalade-like filling. It was absolutely delicious, and I ate most of it before I managed to stop myself and get a picture, hence the copious amount of whipped cream. I still didn't love the suet crust, but it was better here. 

Update! I came home from work today and decided to make a third pudding. This time I chose a chocolate sponge pudding made with butter. I followed this recipe, but lined the buttered pudding basin with sliced almonds and sugar, and added a few tablespoons of Amaretto to the batter. A half recipe steamed in a 0.5L basin for 45 minutes, and was rich, dense and delicious. 

This was such an interesting challenge--it was the first time since I joined that I used a totally new ingredient! Check out the slideshow to see all the fantastic pudding creations by the Daring Bakers.