Figgy Pudding
Description
This classic British dessert features a rich suet and flour crust filled with a medley of dried fruits including figs, apricots, prunes, and dates. The fruit is soaked in brandy and sweetened with honey, ginger, and cinnamon before being steamed for two hours. Serve warm for a deeply satisfying and festive end to any meal.Ingredients
Directions
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(probably 4-6 fl oz) 1/4 ts Ginger 1/4 ts Cinnamon The day before making the pudding, put the apricots, prunes and apples to
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soak in water and put the raisins and sultanas to
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soak in the brandy.
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Put a large saucepan full of water on to boil.
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Take the stones out of the dates and prunes (if the prunes have them): butter a large pudding basin.
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Mix the suet and flour, then
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add the milk gradually to
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make a fairly stiff dough:
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roll out and
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line the pudding basin with this dough, leaving sufficient dough aside to
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make a top.
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Melt the honey and stir in the ginger and cinnamon: add the brandy mixture.
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Pack the fruit into the dough-lined basin and pour the honey/brandy mixture over it.
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Put the suet-crust lid on the basin, then
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cover with foil and tie down tightly, leaving a long end of string to
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make it easy to lift out of the saucepan later.
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Put the basin in the boiling water and
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cook for two hours, watching to
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make sure the pan doesn't
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boil dry:
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add more water if necessary.
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Turn out onto a dish and serve.
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(A word about the pudding basin, for those unfamiliar with them.
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This is a deep, somewhat narrow ceramic bowl, usually holding between 1/2 liter to a liter.
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Old ones have no top, so that you must seal your pudding with its own crust, then usually with a
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layer or two of baking parchment and then lastly with foil to keep the steam and condensation out, the whole business crumpled down around the top of the basin and tied in
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place with thin string.
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This tying is something of an art, and is easy to mess upwhich is why it's such a relief that pudding basins with snap-on lids are now being made, both plastic and metal basins now being available on the UK/Irish side of the Atlantic.
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Your local cookware store may have some of these.
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Otherwise, if Tupperware [or your version of it] can withstand being boiled, you should be able to substitute a Tupperware bowl with a lid for the pudding basin.) (Recipe from TAKE A BUTTOCK OF BEEFE, Verity Isitt, Ashford Press Publishing, Southampton UK, 1987: hardcover
Nutrition Facts
Servings 4
- Amount Per Serving
- Calories 4190.6kcal
- % Daily Value *
- Total Fat 72.0g111%
- Saturated Fat 48.8g244%
- Cholesterol 137.5mg46%
- Sodium 2766.5mg116%
- Total Carbohydrate 633.1g212%
- Dietary Fiber 17.5g70%
- Sugars 467.0g
- Protein 258.9g518%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
apples, apricots, boiling, brandy, british, dates, dessert, dried, figgy, figs, flour, honey, milk, prunes, pudding, raisinssultanas, steaming, suet, title, vegetarian
