Great British Pudding Challenge: Canary Pudding

The lovely Rosie of Rosie bakes a peace of cake hosts a great food event making people more aware of the Great British Pudding. I've been wanting to take part in this challenge in the past but never got the chance to. This month I was determined to make the Canary Pudding, the first part of this challenge was finding a pudding bowl! I searched and was almost giving up looking when I found little mini ones, so I bought 4 and poured some water in to find out what volume they held (1/4 pint) so the plan was to half the ingredients for this one and split it between the four pots. But what made it even more fun was being able to do 2 puddings with jam and 2 puddings with golden syrup!



Here's the original recipe as Rosie typed it:

Canary pudding

4-6 Servings

Ingredients
3-4 tbsp jam or golden syrup or lemon curd
For The Sponge
100g (4 oz) softened butter
100g (4 oz) caster sugar
2 large eggs
Grated zest of 1 lemon
3 -4 tbsp lemon juice
175g (6 oz) self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
Butter for greasing the pudding basin

Notes
The trick of easing a steamed pudding out of a basin is to grease the basin very well with butter and put a little circle of non-stick paper/greaseproof paper into the bottom of your basin before adding any mixture. When cooked run a rounded knife gently around the sides of the pudding to release it. Taking a plate large enough to hold the pudding and its juices, place this over the top of the basin and flip it over quickly. Shake the pudding basin with the plate firmly underneath slightly and the steamed pudding should come out with ease.

You will also need a 2-pint pudding basin (see Rosie’s top tip on how to prepare the basin above) a large circle of buttered greaseproof paper folded in the middle and the same with foil, a little string for tying down the foil.



Recipe
1. Place a steamer on to boil making sure you have sufficient water in the base and lower to a simmer when boiling. If you haven’t got a steamer, place a large enough pan with an upturned plate or saucer in the base, fill up with water half way, then place on the stove to boil, now reduce to a simmer (you will need a tight fitting lid when the pudding goes into steam).
2. In a large mixing bowl add the butter and sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until all combined. Sieve the flour and baking powder into the mixture and add the lemon zest and juice, fold through gently with a metal spoon until all the ingredients are combined together. If the mixture seems a little stiff add a little more lemon juice to the mixture but don’t over do it and make it too sloppy.
3. Place the jam or golden syrup or lemon curd, whichever one you are using, into the base of the pudding basin. Spoon the sponge mixture over the top and level off the sponge with a spatula.
4. Place the buttered pleated greaseproof paper over the top and then the pleated foil over the top. With the string tie down the foil tightly under the basin rim and loop it back over to make a handle. Cut off and extra string that isn’t wanted.
5. Place the pudding into the steamer for 1½ - 2 hours until cooked through. A skewer inserted into the centre of the pudding should come out clean without any uncooked sponge mixture clinging to it when ready.

Thank you Rosie!!!! This was so much fun and incredibly tasty!