Steamed Ginger Pudding

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •1-litre pudding basin
• •Large deep saucepan with a well-fitting lid
• •Trivet, upturned saucer or folded tea towel
• •Baking parchment and foil
• •Kitchen string

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the basin

   Butter a 1-litre pudding basin generously. Don't be shy about it. Cut a disc of baking parchment and press it into the bottom. Put a large, deep pan on the hob with an upturned saucer or a trivet in the base, and pour in enough water to come about a third of the way up the sides of the basin once it goes in. Bring it to a gentle simmer while you make the sponge.

   If you haven't got a trivet, a folded tea towel on the bottom of the pan works perfectly well. The basin just needs to sit off the direct heat.
2. 2

   Cream butter and sugar

   In a big bowl, beat the softened butter and muscovado sugar together until the mixture has loosened and gone a shade paler. Muscovado never quite creams the way caster does, it stays a little coarser, a little darker. That's fine. You're after soft and aerated, not perfectly smooth.

3. 3

   Add treacle and eggs

   Spoon in the golden syrup and the black treacle. Warm the spoon under the hot tap first and they'll slide off without a fight. Beat them through the butter and sugar until the mixture is dark and glossy. Add the eggs a little at a time, beating between each addition. If it looks like it's about to curdle, add a spoonful of the flour and keep going.

   Treacle is uncompromising stuff. A little goes a long way, and too much will make the sponge bitter. Stick to two tablespoons. The rest of the darkness comes from the muscovado.
4. 4

   Fold in the dry ingredients

   Sift the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda and salt over the bowl. Fold them in gently with a big metal spoon, turning the batter over itself until there are no streaks of flour left. Add the chopped stem ginger, the ginger syrup and the milk, and fold again. The batter should drop heavily from the spoon when you lift it. If it feels stiff, a splash more milk.

5. 5

   Cover the basin

   Spoon the batter into the buttered basin. It should come about two-thirds of the way up. Smooth the top. Now make the lid: take a square of baking parchment and a square of foil, lay one on top of the other, and fold a pleat down the middle. The pleat gives the sponge room to rise. Press the double layer over the top of the basin and tie it firmly in place with string just under the rim. Trim off the excess.

   Make a string handle across the top of the basin before you lower it into the pan. You'll thank yourself two hours from now when it's time to lift a hot, heavy basin out of simmering water.
6. 6

   Steam slowly

   Lower the basin into the simmering pan. The water should come about halfway up the sides. Put the lid on and leave it to steam over a low heat for two hours. Check on it every half hour or so and top up with boiling water from the kettle if the level drops. Never let it run dry. This is the only real rule. After an hour or so the kitchen will start to smell of ginger and dark sugar and something like bonfire night, and you'll know you're on the right track.

7. 7

   Turn out and serve

   When the time is up, lift the basin out carefully using the string handle, or oven gloves and a lot of care. Snip the string, peel off the foil and parchment. Run a knife around the edge of the sponge, put a deep plate over the top, and turn the whole thing out in one confident movement. It should come away cleanly, dark and glossy, the top of the sponge now the bottom and slick with the sugars that have pooled there. Serve in thick wedges with cold double cream poured over, or hot custard if the evening calls for it. Both, if you're feeling generous.

Chef Tips

• •Stem ginger in syrup is the thing to buy. A jar lives in the cupboard for months and earns its keep in puddings, cakes and the occasional spoonful stirred into yoghurt. Don't try to substitute fresh ginger here. It's a different flavour entirely, brighter and hotter, and it won't give you the soft, sweet pockets you're after.
• •Keep the heat under the pan low and steady. A rolling boil will bounce the basin around and can dry the pan out fast. You want a quiet simmer, the kind that whispers rather than shouts. A kettle of boiling water on standby to top up is never a bad idea.
• •Leftovers reheat beautifully. Cut a wedge, put it in a bowl, cover with cling film and steam in the microwave for a minute. Custard poured over. I'd almost say it's better the next day, when the treacle has had time to settle into the sponge.

Advance Preparation

• •The pudding can be made a day ahead and reheated by steaming again in the same basin for 30 to 40 minutes, or by the wedge in a covered bowl over simmering water.
• •Leftover wedges keep in the fridge, well wrapped, for up to three days. Reheat gently before serving; this is not a pudding that wants to be eaten cold.
• •The sponge batter itself is best made and cooked on the same day. It's the finished pudding that holds well, not the uncooked mixture.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 160g)