Ginger Steamed Pudding

So I don’t make a lot of steamed puddings, because most folks think that steaming is an odd way to “bake” a dessert! I really like steamed puddings but they do take some extra time. They are easy to put together, because you add everything to a mixing bowl and stir, so the time is just in the steaming. It’s not a dessert that you want to make on a hot day, as the steaming pot will make your house warm and fairly humid!

This is a holiday-appropriate recipe, but ginger is good any time of the year. It uses stem ginger preserved in syrup, which is a hard to find ingredient. Honestly, it is more for decoration than anything, so if you want to skip that step you can. It does make it look nice, but the ginger is quite intense and I didn’t eat the pieces on my serving. As much as I love ginger, you can have too much!

Our pudding basin holds about 2 cups and this makes twice as much batter as you really need. We’ve yet to find a larger pudding basin, and this size works fairly well for just a couple of people. We made this for a holiday gathering, and it was perfect as we could make it ahead and allow it to steam during the evening when we chatting. If you’ve never tried a steamed pudding, I encourage you to give one a try. I think you’ll really like it! (Sorry, not a very good photo. I took it with my phone.)

Ginger Steamed Pudding

6 chunks stem ginger (in syrup)

2 tablespoons golden syrup or honey

175 (6 ounces) grams butter

120 grams (4-1/4 ounces) brown sugar

1 inch piece ginger

3 eggs

2 tablespoons dark treacle or molasses

Zest of 1 orange

175 grams (6 ounces) self-rising flour*

1 teaspoon ginger

½ teaspoon allspice

Custard, for serving

Butter a medium sized pudding basin. Thinly slice the stem ginger and layer over the base of the pudding basin so that the pieces resemble the petals of a flower.  Pour the golden syrup over the pieces of stem ginger.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and brown sugar and beat on medium until combined. Grate the ginger and add juice to the butter mixture; discard the ginger pulp. Add the eggs, treacle, and orange zest and stir to combine. Add the flour, ginger, and allspice and stir on low until the flour is incorporated.

Spoon the batter into the pudding basin; you may have too much batter depending on the size of your pudding basin. Cover the basin with a circle of parchment paper and then cover with foil. Tie these with a string (or use a rubber band) to secure.

Place the pudding in a large pot fitted with a steaming insert. Bring water to a boil in the large pot, ensuring that the pudding basin does not touch the water. Steam the pudding for 2-1/2 hours, adding more boiling water to the pot if needed.

Allow the pudding to cool for 10 minutes before inverting to a serving plate. Serve with custard, if desired.

Recipe from Olive Magazine, December 2013

*I made my own self-rising flour by combining 2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda and ½ teaspoon salt

Advocaat Bundt Cake

If you’re like me, you’ve probably not heard of Advocaat before. What is it? It’s a Dutch eggnog alcoholic drink. (They have lots of different types of eggnog drinks at the liquor store that you could substitute, or just use regular eggnog.) My husband came across a recipe that used Advocaat in a sauce and he wanted to get some. Since the liqueur needed to be refrigerated once opened and wouldn’t likely last very long, I decided to find other recipes that use it. I came across this cake and knew it would be great.

This cake is quite a different recipe. There’s no baking soda or baking powder at all in this recipe, so I was worried that it wouldn’t rise very much. Eggs do add some leavening, but not all that much. Not surprisingly, the cake didn’t raise a lot so you end up with a fairly small, dense cake. 

While the cake is dense, it is not dry. The flavor is very eggy, which you either like or you don’t. I didn’t like the egginess very much but my husband did. My plan was to make a bread pudding with the cake we didn’t eat, as I think that the cake would have been the perfect texture, but I just didn’t get around to that. This cake looks great and has a great texture, but not everyone will like the flavors. If you have an egg lover about, this is the cake for you.

Advocaat Bundt Cake

7 ounces sugar

4 eggs

Seeds from 1 vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup butter, melted

8 fluid ounces Advocaat liqueur

4.5 ounces flour

4.5 ounces corn starch

2 teaspoons baking powder

Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 340 degrees. Thoroughly butter and flour a Bundt pan.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat on medium until light and the mixture had doubled in volume. The mixture will be very pale.  With the mixture running, pour the melted butter down the side of the bowl. Continue mixing until the butter is incorporated. Add the Advocaat and mix again to incorporate.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, corn starch and baking powder. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. Mix just until the flour disappears into the batter.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 60-70 minutes, until a thin knife inserted in the cake comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes and then invert the cake onto a wire rack to cool completely. When cool, dust with powdered sugar.

Recipe from Jo Blogs, Jo Bakes

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

I recently had a Christmas party with the ladies that I take ballet with and we had a great time. One of the ladies graciously hosted at her beautiful home. She asked me to bake a dessert to bring and I was happy to do that. I wanted to do something holiday themed, but also something that would travel ok. I decided to make these gingerbread cupcakes. And I could use these cute gingerbread toppers!

These cupcakes started out as gingerbread latte cupcakes, but I changed them to plain gingerbread cupcakes by adding hot water to the batter instead of hot coffee. I made mini cupcakes since that travelled better and it made a petite dessert for a lighter luncheon. I halved this recipe and made 12 mini cupcakes and 4 regular-sized cupcakes. I like the spiced cupcake paired with the lemon cream cheese frosting. Spice pairs nicely with that tart/sweet flavor! I also topped mine with a little bit of ground gingersnaps, too add a little extra crunch. These turned out well and everyone at the party enjoyed them.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon salt

¼ cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 egg

1/2 cup hot water

1 teaspoon baking soda

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon lemon zest

2 teaspoons lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 regular cupcake or 24 mini cupcake with paper liners.

Make the cupcakes: in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and the salt. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light. Add the molasses and egg and beat until smooth. In a measuring cup combine the hot water and baking soda, stir to dissolve the baking soda, and then add that to the butter mixture. The mixture may look curdled. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour/spice mixture, mixing just until combined.

Fill cupcake liners half to 2/3 full. Bake for 16-20 minutes (mini cupcakes take about 16-18 minutes, regular ones about 20 minutes) until a cake tester inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  Cool in the pan 5 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the frosting: in a large mixer bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla until fluffy. Stir in the lemon zest and juice. Chill for about 30 minutes before frosting the cupcakes. Frost or pipe the frosting on the cupcakes.

Recipe from Baker’s Royale

Mincemeat Tart Almandine

We celebrated an early Thanksgiving with my parents since we will be at my husband’s dad’s house on Thanksgiving. My parents put together the entire meal, but I said I would bring dessert. I’m not the biggest fan of pumpkin pie and neither is my mom, so I didn’t want to go that route. I actually opted for something completely different: a mincemeat almond tart. Ok, so it’s a Christmas recipe, but you can’t have too much mincemeat around the holidays!

This is from a British magazine, where mincemeat is fairly common. The idea of mincemeat scares a lot of people. While in times past it did contain meat, it doesn’t any longer. Think of mincemeat as a spicy, chunky applesauce. You can find it in the stores this time of year, or in the British section of your grocery store if there is one. Luckily I can find mincemeat in the baking aisle of my grocery store. And please, buy something that comes from the UK!

I chose to make the pastry from scratch, but you could use store bought pastry if you wanted to. You might have to roll the pastry fairly thin though. I think you can get by with thicker pastry in a tart, which is good for me as I don’t have the best of skill in rolling out pastry. You assemble the pastry and filling in the food processor and then layer everything together. This tart is fairly fool-proof and it also travels well. It’s sturdy, requires no refrigeration and can be made a day or two in advance. We all loved the tart after dinner; it’s a nice change of pace from traditional pie.

Mincemeat Tart Almandine

8 ounces flour

3.5 ounces butter, cubed

1.75 ounces sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon water

6 ounces butter

6 ounces sugar

4 eggs

6 ounces ground almonds

1 teaspoon almond extract

14 ounces mincemeat

2.75 ounces powdered sugar

Juice of ½ lemon

1.75 ounces sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Have an 11” tart pan with a removable rim ready.

Make the pastry: in a food processor combine the flour and butter and pulse until the butter is cut in to the flour. Add the sugar and pulse again to combine. Add the egg and water and process until the dough comes together. If the dough seems crumbly, add additional water. Gather the pastry together in a ball. Refrigerate if desired.

Roll out the dough until  a circle slightly larger than the tart pan. You will have plenty of pastry; your dough should be about ¼” thick. Line the tart pan with the pastry and trim the edges. Prick the base of the pastry with a fork.

Make the filling: in the same food processor (no need to wash it) process the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs and process until smooth. Mix in the ground almonds and the almond extract. Pulse until the mixture is incorporated.

Spread the mincemeat over the pastry in a smooth layer. Top with the almond filling. You may not need to use all of the filling.

Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden brown. Leave the oven on.

Once the tart has come out of the oven, make the icing: in a small bowl combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice. Whisk until smooth. If the glaze is too thick to pour, add additional lemon juice or water. Spread the icing over the tart and sprinkle with the sliced almonds. Bake for 5 minutes and then cool completely on a wire rack.

Recipe from Mary Berry, via BBC Good Food Magazine

Gingerbread Loaves with Lemon Glaze

I know that this is an awfully Christmas-y recipe, but I want to bake so many holiday treats that I run out of time to post everything in December. So I decided to start early! We had a holiday earlier in the week and my sister-in-law came over and we baked these loaves. She mentioned wanted to make something like gingerbread, and I had this recipe ready to go.

This is a really interesting gingerbread in that the batter calls for a big selection of spices, including ground mustard. I really wasn’t sure about this, but I figured it would just add to the flavor profile. The recipe also calls for fresh ginger. I used ginger paste, which comes in a tube from the produce section at the grocery store. You could also grind fresh ginger and soak it in water. I chose the easier route.

I baked these loaves in two medium pans (8” x 4”) and it makes for a fairly small loaf. That was good in my case as we kept one and sent one home with my sister-in-law. I think baking one loaf in a larger pan would make for a more impressive-looking loaf. Either would work, you would just need to adjust the baking time. I baked my loaves for about 35 minutes; a larger loaf would certainly bake longer. This bread has a very distinct ginger flavor, and maybe isn’t as sweet as some gingerbread you may encounter.

Gingerbread Loaves with Lemon Glaze

1 cup sugar

10 tablespoons butter

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

Zest of 1 orange

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon cloves

½ teaspoon nutmeg

1 tsp. ground mustard

3 tablespoons ginger paste

Juice of one lemon

1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease two 8” x 4” loaf pans or one large 9” x 5” loaf pan.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the sugar and butter until light. Add the eggs and eat until fluffy.  With the mixer running on low, add the buttermilk, orange zest, flour, baking soda, salt, spices, and ginger paste. Stir until just combined. The mixture may be a little lumpy. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan(s) and smooth the top.

Bake for about 30-45 minutes, depending on the size of pan, until golden brown and the tops spring back when touched. If the top of the loaf seems to be browning too quickly, cover with foil the last 10-15 minutes of baking. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes; remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack.

Make the glaze: in a small bowl combine the powdered sugar and enough lemon juice to make a glaze of drizzling consistency. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled loaf/loaves.

Recipe from Pinch of Yum