Microwaved Steamed Ginger Pudding to warm up a cool afternoon

With autumn here we are having more and more cool afternoons.  The sun still shining and during the hottest time of the day you can expect at the most 20°C, but once the sun starts to go down, the cold temperatures climb up and we can be as cold as 5°C already!  A fun way to keep warm during these autumn days is to bake cakes and biscuits.  Children love to get their hands in the kitchen to grate, mix and decorate their baked efforts. 

Some of my favourite recipes to warm up during a cool afternoon are steam puddings, always delicious with a scoop of ice cream or with hot custard.  The only thing that ever put me off from cooking a steam pudding was the length of time that it had to be steamed.  However, not long ago, I found the solution to this when I found a recipe for steam puddings cooked in the microwave. 

Microwaved Ginger Steamed Pudding

Did you know that you can cook a traditional steam pudding in a microwave?  Yes, steam puddings can be cooked in a microwave in a fraction of the time.  Instead of traditionally steaming your pudding for 1 and ½ hours, you can have your pudding microwaved and ready to serve in less than 5 minutes.  Do you want to try?  Here we go, you will need:

Ginger Photographed by: Frank C. Müller

225g Self raising flour

2 tea-spoons of ground ginger

25g steam ginger finely chopped

50g butter

50g caster sugar

2 tablespoons of honey

2 eggs

2 tablespoons of milk

A pinch of salt

Ginger jam (for the syrup)

Before you start, prepare all your materials and ingredients.  Start by greasing a 1 litre pudding basin.

In a bowl mix the flour, salt and ground ginger.  Add the butter and then all the other ingredients.  Mix well.  That is your pudding ready to steam. 

Place the mixture in a basin; make sure you leave room for expansion and cover loosely to allow steam to escape.  Microwave on full power for 4 minutes (in a 650w microwave) or 3 and a half minutes in a 800w microwave.  Leave to cool.

For the ginger syrup put at least 3 Tablespoons of ginger jam in a bowl and heat it up until runny in the microwave.  Pour the syrup over the steam pudding and enjoy! 

If you don’t have ginger jam, you can always make a light syrup with sugar, water and a piece of ginger root or caramelized gingers.  

November is time for:

Do not forget that November is the month to start preparing your Christmas puddings Remember that once cooked your Christmas pudding  needs to be kept in a cool place, ideally a larder. Christmas puddings are often dried out on hooks for weeks prior to serving in order to enhance the flavour.

Photograph by DO'Neil.