Daring Bakers - British Pudding

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

I usually make Christmas Pudding, but never tried one with suet. In fact it is not easy to find this ingredient in Portugal, only lard is common. So, I chose the Spotted Dick and used vegetable butter instead.

The steaming process is not difficult. I have an aluminium pudding base with a lid and put it inside a pan with boiling water, keeping it for about 2 hours. Ate it with blueberry sauce.

Next time I'll try a pudding crust and make a savoury pudding.

Spotted Dick
Steamed Suet Pudding, sponge type



(100 grams/4 ounces) All-purpose flour

(1/4 teaspoon) salt

(1.5 teaspoons) Baking powder

(100 grams/4 ounces) breadcrumbs

(75 grams/3 ounces) Caster sugar

(75 grams/ 3 ounces) Shredded suet or suet substitute (i.e., Vegetable Suet, Crisco, Lard)

(1) large egg

(6 to 8 tablespoons) Cold milk



1. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into bowl.

2. Add breadcrumbs, sugar and suet. Add 75g/ 3oz currants and 25g/1 oz of mixed chopped peel with the sugar.

3. Mix to a soft batter with beaten egg and milk

4. Turn into a buttered 1 litre/ 2pint pudding basin and cover securely with buttered greaseproof paper or aluminum foil.

5. Steam steadily for 2.5 to 3 hours

6. Turn out onto warm plate, Serve with sweet sauce to taste such as custard, caramel or a sweetened fruit sauce.