The perfect... Sussex pond pudding
-
Loading... - Kelly Cable
- 26 Jan 2021
- 1237 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
Serves 6-8
150g self-raising flour
80g shredded suet
1 pinch salt
½ tsp ground ginger (optional)
50ml milk
50ml water
100g butter, cubed, plus extra to grease
100g soft brown sugar
1 unwaxed lemon
Generously grease a 750ml pudding basin and line the base with greaseproof paper. Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 (if using) and boil the kettle.
Put the flour, suet, salt and ginger in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Mix the milk and water, and pour into the bowl. Stir to bring it together into a firm dough, adding a little more liquid or flour if it feels too dry or too soft.
Set aside a quarter of the pastry, for the lid, and roll out the rest on a lightly floured surface until just large enough to line the basin (make sure it isn’t too thin).
Toss together the butter and sugar, and put most of this in a layer in the bottom. Cut the lemon almost but not wholly across about a quarter of the way up; repeat on the opposite side halfway up, and finally from the opposite side three-quarters of the way up: the lemon should still be more or less intact when you put it in the basin. Pack round it with the remaining butter and sugar.
Roll out the remaining pastry to make a lid, moisten the pastry around the rim of the basin with water, then pop on the lid and press the two together firmly.
Cut out another two circles of paper 10cm larger than the top of the basin, and fold a pleat into the centre (this will give the pudding room to breathe). Top the basin with the pleated paper and secure with string, looping it first around the rim and then across the top to make a handle
Put the basin in a steamer or on an upturned saucer in a pan large enough to hold it fully, and pour in boiling water to come a third of the way up the sides of the basin. Bring to a simmer, cover and put in the oven for about four hours, topping up the water as necessary.
Lift the basin from the pan, cut off the handle and paper, and turn out the pudding on to a plate with a lip around the edge, to catch the juices inside when you cut into it; the pudding will sag, but don’t worry – looks aren’t everything with suet puddings, after all. Cut into portions (ideally straight through the lemon which is now at the top of the pudding, and serve with chilled cream.
