Snowdon Pudding - Pwdin Eryri.

Snowdon Pudding with Lemon Toffee Sauce set against a background of my own design fabric at Spoonflower

 Eliza Acton gave the ‘genuine’ recipe in 1845, asserting that it was ‘constantly served to travellers at the hotel at the foot of Snowdon -Yr Wyddfa ’ - the ‘Pen-y-groes.’ I looked but could not find any info about this hotel but there is a town called Pen-y-groes. This recipe is a version of my own taken from a recipe in the January issue of British Country Living.

British puddings are an odd category especially so as ALL desserts in the UK are called pudding as in "Whats for pudding?" but then a pudding could be for pudding and then that usually means a steamed pudding such as the one we are having here. Steamed puddings are also odd in that they were usually created at a time when ingredients were scarce and the best was made of what little there was available - as in the very hard times during the 2 world wars. Here's a link to more information and a whole array of traditional British puddings

This particular steamed pudding is mostly comprised of breadcrumbs which makes it springy and much more sponge like - it is not too sweet and it is quite hearty for a cold and blustery day - you wouldn't want to be eating this in high summer!!

SNOWDON PUDDING: enough for 4 good sized servings - this recipe can easily be doubled.

Ingredients:

3.5oz raisins

4oz butter chilled and grated on a grating box - most steamed pudding recipes use beef suet but most people don't want to use that anymore or it's not easily available so I substituted butter and it turned out fine if a tad bit greasy - suet is great for lightness and is less greasy than butter in a steamed pudding

1 tablespoon of flour

2oz sugar

4oz fresh breadcrumbs (in the magazine they used only white breadcrumbs - I had a lot of crust hanging around so I made my breadcrumbs from those thus my pudding is quite a lot darker than the one pictured in the magazine - but this is your choice - I don't think either way tastes better or worse)

3oz lemon marmalade (I didn't have any lemon marmalade so I used ginger marmalade and I think it went really well with the lemon sauce - as you can see I do tend to go with the flow in terms of ingredients unless something is an absolute must for the recipe - you could use regular orange  marmalade too)

zest of 1 lemon - preferably organic

3 large eggs whisked well together

The first order of the day is to get a nice big double boiler going so start that first and it can be heating as you make the pudding. 

1. Grease a 1 quart/2 pint pudding basin/bowl/mould very well and put about one third of the raisins in the bottom.

2. Mix butter, breadcrumbs, flour, sugar, marmalade and remaining raisins together in one bowl.

3. In another bowl whisk eggs with lemon zest.

4. Stir egg mixture into the other mixture and it will look like this - 

5. Spoon this over the raisins in the greased bowl.

6. Now we cut a round of greaseproof/ parchment baking paper to cover the bowl generously....cover the bowl, fold paper over down the sides and secure with an elastic band.

7. Now cut a circle of aluminium foil, fold over the top of the bowl, secure with another rubber band and then for ease of getting the pudding bowl in and out of the steamer basket without scalding yourself tie string around the bowl in the manner below.

Now pop your little pudding into the 'basket' of the boiler and put it back in the pan on the stove...put the lid on and get the kettle on for a cuppa while you wait for your pudding to be cooked. I steamed this one for 2 hours on our humming wood burning stove...just to add to the Maine mystique. 

 Remove the bowl from basket after the two hours and remove covers - leave uncovered in the bowl for 10 - 15 minutes - after that time put a plate on top of the bowl and with covered hands invert quickly and give a shake to help the pudding plop out of the bowl.

 And thus you end up with a little hat shaped pudding which is quite probably rounded on the bottom...you cut some of the rounded part off the bottom for presentation purposes so it sits level on the plate. Now for the sauce - no pudding is complete without a sauce.

LEMON TOFFEE SAUCE:

This is pretty much of my own concoction as I didn't like the one the magazine gave so I took the recipe from my Sticky Toffee Pudding - left out the cream and added fresh lemon juice - YUM!!!

2.5oz sugar

1.5oz butter (I always use salted - I like that flavour!)

5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice - 2 small lemons worthish

1. Melt butter and sugar together.

2. Add lemon juice and allow to bubble until it thickens slightly - pour over your pudding and voila - get eating - I prefer my pudding slightly cooled and definitely like it the next day completely cool - both are ways are just fine!!

HAPPY STEAMING!!

Pancake Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday.

Pancake Tuesday, as it is known in Blighty, also Shrove Tuesday as it is the day on which one shrives.....ie confesses one's multitudinous sins before the beginning of Lent. Also the day when you decide to deprive yourself of 'luxury' foods for the next 46 days, eggs and butter constituting 'luxury', thus Pancake Tuesday was born to use up the remaining butter and eggs, of course with the addition of flour.

In Britain many pancake races (here's a link to the pancake races in London 2012) are held on, yes, Pancake Tuesday......a race open to women over 16 who must wear a cap and apron and run 415 yards (who chose that number I wonder?) whilst tossing their pancakes at least three times. Dropping your pancake means instant disqualification.

British pancakes are what Americans would call crepes...they are very thin and light and crepe like. Growing up we always had two sorts of toppings on our pancakes (and yes we always did have pancakes on Pancake Tuesday).....jam (how very Eddie Izzard!) and the very Brit lemon and butter, by which James is horrified! I have Americanized my lemon and butter with the excellent addition of maple syrup....lemon and maple is a truly great combination.

I use Jooolia's French cooking crepes recipe for my pancakes...and no I don't run in races with them. For some unknown reason my pancakes would not toss this time...I am usually very good at flipping a pancake.....not today....must be something to do with all the snow we have!!

THE RECIPE:

3/4 cup of cold whole milk

3/4 cup cold water

3 egg yolks

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla essence (Joolia uses 3 tablespoons rum, brandy or orange liqueur but that doesn't work for Pancake Tuesday pancakes)

1 cup of flour, scooped and levelled

5 tablespoons of melted butter

THE METHOD.....bone achingly hard.....place all the ingredients in the jar of a blender in the order they are listed and blend at high speed for one minute. Scrape down any flour on the sides of the jar and blend again for 3, not 4, seconds. Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours and preferably overnight.

For each pancake I used about 3 tablespoons of batter, I let them cook on medium high heat with just a glimmer of butter to grease the pan, preferably a copper crepe pan, for about 2 minutes on the first side 'til browned on the edges and they come free of the pan when shaken, not stirred, laterally. I attempted to flip today and failed miserably so I loosened the edges with a sharp knife and persuaded the unwilling pancake to flip over with a spatula.....I cooked them on the other side for about one minute then I shimmied them onto a plate knee deep in granulated sugar...for the jam ones I placed about 1 tablespoon of Bonne Maman cherry preserves in a strip in the centre of the pancake and rolled it up into a tube the way my Mum did, and for the lemon ones I dotted with butter, squeezed lemon on the butter (a Meyer lemon if you can get one, so much more fragrant and juicier) and folded into quarters then sprinkled both types with a bit more sugar...ta dah!!!...Pancake Tuesday pancakes...and delicious they were too. I have some batter left so I can have more tomorrow on the correct day.