Cranberry pudding. I had wanted to make plum pudding for a Christmas dessert but first I needed to find suet, an old-fashioned British type of beef fat, and like citron candies I found it impossible to locate in stores. The recipe told me that for plum pudding there is no acceptable substitute, so instead I settled on a cranberry dish which you prepare by mixing flour, baking soda, baking powder, warm water, and molasses. I cut the cranberries in half and folded them in, then poured the batter into a 9-inch round pan and put it on top of a steamer to cook.
This was my first experience using boiling water instead of an oven to make a cake, though undoubtedly in earlier times it was a very common way to prepare bread and pastries, and there is a certain pleasure in watching the pudding slowly come together on the stove. But it took much longer than I had expected. A good four to five hours had gone by before the pudding had transformed from a custard into a pastry. Nothing I’ve written about this year has ended up in what I consider to be a failure; all the food I’ve cooked or eaten and then recorded has been, at least, good for a quick meal. But the cranberry pudding, I’m sorry to say, will be the exception. It seemed like it had been cooked too long and also hadn’t quite solidified, and the cranberries were sour and made it taste a bit like liquor.
(Photo: Downtown building, Madrid.)
365 Days of Food 