The Great British Bake Off is one my favorite shows, inspiring new bakes, new flavors, and new techniques! Join me on my journey to bake through all the Season 13 Challenges.
Since replicating Season 8 of the Great British Bake Off wasn’t enough, I decided to try my hand at a different season! This time, I am working on season 13 which is the most recent season! This season had some great bake ideas as well as some not-so-great ones (but we’ll get there when we get there).
So, I figured, let’s do this all again! One of the big challenges I wanted to attempt this time around was coming up with original ideas for the signature and showstopper challenges instead of doing a recreation. On your mark… Get set… Bake!
Week Five is dessert week! And the signature for dessert week is… steamed pudding? Yea… I have no idea. This seemed like a more classic British dessert. Especially since some of the contestants on the show did not really know what this was either. At least I wasn’t alone in my confusion!
According to the show, the challenge includes a steamed pudding with some sort of accompaniment. Most of the contestants did some sort of custard. I decided to do a lemon and raspberry steamed pudding with a lemon caramel as the accompaniment. I probably should have done some sort of jam but I was trying to see what would happen if I just did a steamed pudding,
Check out the Season 13 Great British Bake Off Page to see other bakes from this series or the Make section for more recipes! Leave a comment below and let me know what you think and how the recipe works for you!
Ingredients
So, from what I can tell, a steamed pudding is effectively a cake that is cooked through the steam of water over the stove. Which makes the ingredients very similar to that of cake. The only “interesting” or “different” ingredient is the self-raising flour. This flour has some leavening agent in it which allows it to give a rising effect of anything it’s baked in.
The only real “flavor” I have running through the dish is lemon. I also added some raspberries, but I decided not to include that in the recipe at the bottom. The lemon has a better flavor anyway.
Process
Lemon Steamed Pudding Batter
The first step of the whole process is making the batter. I started by beating together the butter, sugar, and lemon zest. When that was all beaten together, I added in the lemon juice and eggs. I wanted to create a mix of all the wet ingredients.
Then I added in dry ingredients and combined everything until it was just incorporated. From what I can tell, this type of bater can be prone to over mixing. I probably should have done this part by hand.
After the batter was ready, I placed a portion of the batter into a baking cup and repeated that step 8 times. I wanted to leave some room the raspberry batter (and yes… I did not leave enough room).
Raspberry Steamed Pudding Batter
The Raspberry steamed pudding batter was an almost identical process to making the lemon steamed pudding. The only differences are not adding in any zest and adding in fresh raspberries instead of lemon juice. The batter also felt a little runnier than the lemon steamed pudding batter, so I added a touch more flour.
Then I added the raspberry batter in the remaining space of the baking cups. Did I fill up the space too much? Yes… Was it the worst thing I could have done? Well… no. It works out in the end, but I would not recommend filling the cups as full as I did.
Baking…er…Boiling
With the cups full of batter, I then had to wrap each one of them up. I put down a layer of parchment paper topped with a layer of tin foil. I tried to crimp the edges so they would stay shut in the baking process.
I then put all the baking cups into a large pot. I heated water until it was boiling in a separate vessel. Then I poured the boiling water into the pan until the water came up to the halfway point on the baking cups. The pan went over a medium to low heat on the stove. And so began the steaming portion of making steam puddings.
And this is also where I made (or realized) several mistakes. Mistake number one is that I filled the baking cups too full. The steamed pudding wanted to grow but they had nowhere to grow except for out of the cup. Several of the steamed pudding cups expanded beyond the cup and leaked into the hot water. I decided not to touch it and see where this experiment went.
Mistake number two was I got too nervous about cooking the cup and cooked them for too long. I wanted them to be fully cooked, but the smaller area of a baking cup meant that it didn’t need as long to cook. Less material, less need for cooking. But I still got nervous and cooked the streamed pudding for an overlong period of time. This made the steamed pudding a little dry… (although it was still delicious).
Lemon Caramel
For the accompaniment, I decided to make a lemon caramel. I have been very curious about this recipe because I had no idea what to expect. Mainly, I wasn’t sure how the lemon flavor would come out in the caramel. And that was the first step of making the caramel, I put lemon peel into a pot with the cream and heated the mix over the stove. The cream was brought to hot heat but not a boil. I then removed the pot from the stove and let it cool for 30 minutes.
In a different pot, I began to heat the sugar. This was a weird process for me since I have always heated sugar with other ingredients in the pot (typically water or juice). I have never heated sugar alone. But it melts rather nicely. The sugar was also extremely dark when melted, which felt odd. I was worried that it would burn.
Once all the sugar melted, I added in the cream and butter and stirred rapidly. I think I let the cream get too cold because it caused the sugar to solidify. So, I stirred the mix until everything melted once again. Then I removed the pan from the heat and added salt.
Reflections
It is clear to say that I made a few mistakes in making steamed pudding. Which is hardly surprising given that it was my first time making a steamed pudding! Although the dessert was a little dry, the flavor that I was able to bring out was amazing. This is definitely a recipe I would love to try again (just less filling and less cooking).
Lessons
Cooking smaller vs bigger
When cooking in a smaller container, less time is needed than when cooking in a larger container. This is because there is less material to be cooked. There is a also more surface area for the material in the smaller container than the larger container. Remember to adjust for time depending on the size of the cooking vessel!
recipe
Lemon Steamed Pudding
Ingredients
Steamed Puddings
- 9 Tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
- 1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ Cup self-raising flour
- ¾ cup warm milk
Lemon Caramel
- 1 ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 lemons
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 ½ Tablespoon unsalted butter softened
- ¾ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Steamed Pudding
- In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and lemon zest. Then add in lemon juice and 1 egg and mix until combined. Then add in the other egg.
- In a small bowl, sift together ½ cup flour and salt. Mix the flour into the wet mixture until just combined.
- Add in the remaining flour and milk and mix until just combined.
- Grease eight small metal cups. Divide the batter among them. Cover each with a layer of baking paper and a layer of tin foil. Crimp edges to secure.
- Place the cups inside a large pan. Boil water and pour the boiling water into the pot until it comes halfway up the sides of the cups. Cover the pan with a lid and let simmer over low heat for about forty-five minutes to an hour. Let stand for 5 minutes before demolding.
Lemon Caramel
- Peel zest off the lemon in strips. Pour cream into a small saucepan and add lemon peel. Heat cream until just before it reaches a boil. Remove from heat and let rest for 30 minutes. Strain out lemon peel.
- In a medium size saucepan, place sugar over a gentle flame and let melt. When the sugar reaches a dark golden color, add butter and cream.
- Stir for one to two minutes and then remove from heat and add salt, as desired.
- Let rest for 20 minutes before serving.
hey
cool blog 🙂 will give it a follow and a like !