Retro Recipe Revival: Clootie Dumpling

Retro Recipe Revival: Clootie Dumpling

It’s time for another one from the archives, this time from a recipe book that accompanied the Tower Pressure Cooker sold throughout the early to mid-90s. This week’s Retro-Recipe Revival sees us embracing our Caledonian side and bringing you a dish traditionally cooked in an old pillowcase (seriously) in the form of Clootie Dumpling.

Recommended appliance

Tower 6 Litre Stainless Steel One-Touch Pressure Cooker Total time to table: 1 hour 45 minutes Total Cost Per Serving: £1.29 Contains Nuts? No Suitable for Vegetarians? No Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 225g plain flour (plus 50g for sprinkling)
• x 1 tspn bicarbonate of soda
• x 1 tspn mixed spice
• 50g Muscatel raisins
• x 1tspn ground cinnamon
• x 1 tspn ground ginger
• ¼ tspn sea salt
• 175g caster sugar (plus x 1 tspn for sprinkling)
• 100g shredded vegetarian suet
• 100g sultanas
• 85g stoned dates (chopped)
• x 1 apple or carrot (coarsely grated)
• x 1 tbspn black treacle
• x 1 egg
• 150ml buttermilk
• 225g whipped cream (flavoured with x 2 tbspns whiskey)
• Custard to serve (optional)

Preparation

• Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt into a bowl and stir in the sugar, suet, dried fruit, as well as whichever you have chosen from the apple and the carrot.

• Mix the black treacle with the egg and buttermilk and then mix into the dry ingredients to produce a soft mixture with a cake-like dropping consistency. The Tower 300W Stainless Steel Hand Mixer will help you out no end here.

• Next, dip a large piece of muslin, an old, clean pillowcase, a pudding cloth, or a tea-towel, into boiling water and then squeeze out any excess. Lay it out on a clean surface and sprinkle a 30cm circle of flour (50g) and a tablespoon of caster sugar.

• Carefully spoon the dumpling mixture on top and then bring the opposite corner of the cloth together over the top, bunching the material together so that the pudding forms a ball shape.

• Tie off securely with string, making sure you leave little room for the pudding to expand.

• Place a trivet in your pressure cooker, place the pudding on the trivet knotted side up and the cover with water.

• Replace the lid on the pressure cooker and bring the water to the boil, allowing it to reach full pressure. Set a timer for 1 hour 30 minutes (the Tower 6 Litre Stainless Steel One-Touch Pressure Cooker comes in especially hand here as the removable timer means you can get on with your day whilst the dumpling is cooking).

• When the cooking time has elapsed, cool the pressure cooker slowly and release the pressure using the ‘natural release method’. Then, pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.

• Once the pudding has cooled, remove from the water, undo the parcel, and invert onto oven-proof bakeware. Place in the oven and leave to cook for around 15 minutes until the outside of the pudding has dried off.

Serving

• Cut into chunky wedges and place on serving plate, topped with the whisky flavoured whipped cream. Alternatively, drizzle with hot custard for a warming pick-up during the winter months.

If you’d like to try this recipe or others from the Retro Recipe Revival series, head over to our Pressure Cookers and Food Preparation pages before you commandeer the kitchen as we’ve all sorts of useful appliances (in addition to those mentioned here) that can help you make this culinary  creation and others like it.