Hot Marmalade Pudding
I first experimented with this pudding long before we moved to Skye and took over the restaurant. I decided to make it for my late, very dear father-in-law, John Spear, for his 74th birthday. He had complained to me that nobody made steamed puddings any more and I resolved to make him one instead of a birthday cake. The original recipe was in a small, paperback cookbook that I found in my local Sainsbury's in West Wickham! I adapted it, of course, but it goes to prove that there is nothing new under the sun in the way of recipes. Someone, somewhere, will have created something very similar, at some time before you!
Several years later, when we took over the Three Chimneys, I wanted to put a traditional 'nursery' pudding on the menu and dug out the recipe. It has since become a signature dish and has remained on the menu since the very first night. Some people imagine a stodgy suet pudding with a dollop of marmalade at the bottom of the basin. In fact it is very light as there is so little flour in the recipe and it is full of flavour. The marmalade is combined throughout, giving the dessert a rich, amber colour. The two hour steaming is essential to its success.
INGREDIENTS:
- 150g fine brown breadcrumbs
- 120g soft light brown sugar
- 25g self-raising wholemeal flour (white self-raising would do)
- 120g fresh butter, plus extra for greasing the bowl
- 8tbsp well-flavoured, coarse-cut marmalade (home made is always the best)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 rounded tsp bicarbonate of soda plus 1 tbsp water to mix
METHOD:
Butter a 3 pint pudding basin well. Place the breadcrumbs, flour and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Melt the butter together with the marmalade, in a saucepan over a gentle heat. Pour the melted ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix together thoroughly. Whisk the eggs until frothy and beat gently unto the mixture until blended together well. Last of all, dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in 1 tablespoon of cold water. Stir this into the pudding mixture, which will increase in volume as it absorbs the bicarbonate of soda. Spoon the mixture into the prepared basin. Cover it with a close-fitting lid, or alternatively, make a lid with circles of buttered greaseproof paper and foil, pleated together across the centre and tied securely around the rim of the basin. Place the pudding basin in a saucepan of boiling water. Cover the pan with a close-fitting lid and simmer the pudding for 2 hours. The water will need topping up throughout the cooking period. Turn out onto a serving dish, slice and serve hot, with fresh cream, ice cream, or - as we do at The Three Chimneys - with Drambuie Custard.
- The Three Chimneys: Recipes & Reflections From The Isle Of Skye's World Famous Restaurant
Shirley Spear's story of the creation of the renowned Three Chimneys Restaurant provides a fascinating insight into her life as a chef, restaurant owner and working mum throughout the recent period of Scotland's burgeoning restaurant scene.
Internet Links
© Shirley Spear. Extract with kind permission of Mercat Press and Reekie Lums Enterprises.
The book features over 40 beautiful recipes from the Three Chimney's restaurant - including Drambuie Custard and Shirley's perfect home-made Orange Marmalade, plus over 100 evocative pictures of the Isle of Skye.