Mammy’s steamed apple pudding

I managed to get my hands on some cooking apples, thanks to the Internet Grocer. Yay! Now to use them.

Every time I go home, I ask mammy to make her steamed apple pudding for me. Ah, bless. it's one of my favourite desserts.  

I also managed to get my hands on a pudding steamer (from Amazon), seeing as I couldn’t find any suitable bowl (plastic, with either a well fitting lid or a good lip that you can use to catch a string around).

So, for comfort, you will need:

100g butter

100g sugar

100g flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

2 eggs

vanilla essence

4 cooking apples

Beat the sugar and butter until white. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Fold in the flour and baking powder until it’s all combined. It should drop easily off the spoon, so if needed, add a little milk.

Steamed apple pudding mixture

Pop the kettle on.

Peel the apples and slice into the bottom of your steaming dish. Top with the cake mixture.

Sliced apples for steamed apple pudding

Now for the science! You have to make sure that your steaming dish is totally sealed. If you have a steamer, this is easy enough. If you are using a bowl, cover the pudding with greaseproof paper and tinfoil and tie with string (this is where the lip on the bowl comes in handy). For both, make sure that no moisture can get in or out.

In a large pot, place a saucer upside down on the bottom, put your pudding bowl on top and fill half way with boiling water from the kettle you boiled a few moments ago. Cook for an hour and a half, keeping an eye on the water level to make sure it doesn’t go dry – if so, just add more boiling water.

When done, lift out carefully – the steam can burn you. Serve with loads of custard (the stuff from the packet).