Canterbury Pudding Two Ways

In the spirit of generosity I am sharing with you a recipe I have failed on.... twice.   Living near Canterbury, I thought I'd try Canterbury Pudding, in the hope that this historic regional speciality might be a delight to the palate.  Alas, not.  Or, at least, not when I made it!  So I'm throwing this out as a challenge to all you wonderful cooks, in the hope that you succeed where I failed.   The pudding was intended to be either steamed or baked.  I tried both, and, as you can see, neither looks inviting, and neither was particularly edible.   Even the chickens rejected them initially!  To be fair, it did call for shredded suet or butter, and I used butter.   Maybe some historic recipes are doomed to die.    I promise you something more tempting next week.

Canterbury Pudding

Canterbury Pudding

Canterbury Pudding              

3oz/75g breadcrumbs (fresh, not stale!)

3oz/75g self-raising flour

3oz/75g suet or softened butter

2oz/50g soft brown sugar

1 egg

1 lemon, zest and juice

3 tbsp brandy

3tbsp milk

Grease a 2 pint/1100ml pudding basin, if you are going to steam the pudding, or grease a deep pie dish if you are baking it.    Mix together all the dry ingredients, then add in all the wet ingredients - a little milk at a time, as you want to produce a dropping consistency.  Pour the mixture into the pudding basin, cover with a hat of baking parchment tied with string (put a pleat in the middle to allow for the pudding to rise) and steam for 1.5 to 2 hours in a large, lidded saucepan, making sure that the water doesn’t come more than half way up the pudding basin. 

If you are baking the pudding, cook at 180 deg C for about an hour until well risen (it doesn’t!).     Turn out the pudding and serve hot with custard.

This quantity will feed up to 10 hens.