Sussex Pond Puddings - Hoosier Style

So, you know I had those two lemons that grew on my Meyer lemon tree.   A commenter suggested that I make Sussex Pond Puddings with them.   Since I'd never heard of them, I went looking and found this site with a great recipe for them.   The English Kitchen.  Fabu site, by the way.

Basically, Sussex Pond Pudding is a steamed pudding with a suet-type crust that is filled with butter, sugar and a whole lemon, then steamed for hours until the lemon is cooked.   The 'pond' is the melted filling that spills out when you open the pudding.  

The English Kitchen's recipe was in grams and called for suet.   Suet just isn't going to happen here, so I converted everything to cups and tried the recipe with butter and again with shortening instead of the suet in the crust. 

I had never made steamed pudding before, so this was all new territory.   I admit that I cut down on the butter in the filling because my arteries were slamming shut just thinking about all of the butter in this dish.  Also, I made individual puddings so we could play with different fillings.  [More on those later]. Finally, I steamed them in the oven instead of the stovetop because the individual ones wouldn't all fit in one pan. 

The dough was easy to make and easy to handle.   Cut out one quarter and save it for the top.   It's easy to press into shape for the top.

Press the rest into the ramekins.

Then fill and cover with the rest of the dough.  I ended up sealing the edges with a fork. 

Cover with parchment paper and tie it down.   Notice the pleats in the center.   I don't know if they worked, but that's the traditional way to do it.

I set the ramekins in a large baking pan, filled it with hot tap water halfway up the sides of the ramekins, put it in the oven at 350 and set the timer for 2 hours.  And then we waited.  

Two hours was a bit long - they got very brown.  Not too brown, but very brown.    I think 1 1/2 hours would be better.  

Then I inverted them into bowls and we dug in.

Wow.  

Wow!

Lemony, syrupy, sweet, buttery goodness oozing all over.  

Want to make some? 

You should make some.



Sussex Pond Pudding - Hoosier Style
www.rurification.com

Pastry  [Enough for three individual puddings or one large one.]

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup fine bread crumbs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter or shortening
• 1/3 cup milk + a Tablespoon or so.

Combine the flour, bread crumbs and salt.  Cut in the butter or shortening until fine.   Add milk.  Stir together to form dough.   It will be soft.   

Divide dough into thirds.    Roll each into a round disk about 1/4 inch thick.   Cut out one quarter of the dough to save for the top.   Fit the rest of the dough into a cone shape and press it into the cup or ramekin.  Trim off excess dough and keep it for the top.   Fill the puddings.

Roll or press the remaining dough into circles for the tops of the puddings.   Seal, etc. as below.  

Filling for individual puddings:  

• 1/2 lemon per individual pudding, sliced thinly
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons butter, divided into thirds
• 3 Tablespoons brown sugar

In the bottom of the pastry-lined ramekin, put 1 Tablespoon of butter and 1Tablespoon of brown sugar.  Stack the lemon slices and top with 2 Tablespoons brown sugar and 1/2 Tablespoon butter.  Cover with pastry.  Seal edges.   Cover with parchment paper and tie it down.  

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Place puddings in large baking pan and fill with water until it comes halfway up the ramekins.   Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until brown on top. 

When done, remove parchment paper, slide a knife around the edge to make sure it's loose and invert the pudding onto a plate or bowl.    Don't let them cool too much or the bottom sticks.   If you need to make these ahead, then when you're ready to serve, microwave them to warm them up [hot!] so that the bottom will come out of the cup.  

These are great with cream.