Steamed ginger pudding

I got this from The Guardian and amended the preparation a little. If you are interested in other steamed pudding, try my mam’s steamed apple pudding. I guess you could combine both of these to make a ginger-y, syrup-y apple pudding. I suppose this would work by putting apples in the bottom of your steamer dish and putting this ginger pudding mixture on top. Leave a note in the comments if you try this before I do!

Steamed ginger pudding

180g butter, softened, plus a little extra for greasing

80g stem ginger, thinly sliced, plus 3 tbsp of syrup from the jar (you can get this in the Asian section of your supermarket)
7 tbsp golden syrup or honey, or a mixture of these
180g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
180g golden caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp milk

If your pudding bowl doesn’t fit into any of your pots, you will also need an oven-proof dish that is big enough to hold your pudding bowl, and an industrial amount of tin foil.

Butter a 1.2-litre pudding bowl and line the base with a circle of baking parchment if you’re going to turn out your finished product. My mam never did this, and the thought of doing this has never even dawned on me. I suppose it makes sense, particularly if you’re making it for guests.

Chop your ginger very finely. I thought I had chopped it small enough, into chunks about 3-4mm in size, but in the final pud, they were a bit too chunky.

In a mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and ground ginger. In another bowl, beat the butter, sugar, eggs and milk until smooth. I mixed the chopped ginger and the golden syrup in at this stage. Fold the flour mix into the butter mix until well combined.

Put the kettle on to boil.

Pour the mixture into the pudding bowl and put the lid on or make sure it’s well covered with a layer of greaseproof paper and tin foil, tied with a string.

Pre-cooking.  Make sure you leave enough room in the
dish so that the pudding can expand

If you’re lucky enough to have a large enough pot, put a saucer upside down on the bottom of the pot, put your pudding dish on top and pour the boiling water into the pot. Cover with a lid and simmer for an hour and a half. Make sure that the water doesn’t boil off.

If you don’t have a large enough pot, get your oven-proof dish ready and put the oven on to 190°. You need to create a seal around the pot and the dish to ensure that the pudding steams. Put down enough tin foil to cover the two dishes – you might need to put down two parallel sheets to do this. Put your pudding dish in the oven-proof dish and fill the oven-proof dish with boiling water. Bring the tin foil up around the pot and close it so that none of the steam can escape. I took some photos to give you a better idea. Carefully put it in the oven and cook for an hour and a half.

Wrapping the pudding to steam it.
I still have to put the lid on the dish here. 

And ready to go into the oven

However you cook it, after the 90 minutes, carefully take the pudding bowl out of the pot/dish. There will be a lot of steam, and steam can burn.

Serve your pudding hot, with custard or cream, or both.