Recipe: Cloutie Dumpling with Ginger Cream

Title: Cloutie Dumpling with Ginger Cream
Categories: Desserts
Yield: 8 servings

--------------------------------THE DUMPLING--------------------------------
1 lb Self-raising flour - cored, unpeeled, grated
6 oz Fresh brown breadcrumbs 1 Carrot; grated
4 oz Soft brown sugar 8 oz Currants
1 ts Mixed spice 8 oz Sultanas
A little extra cinnamon 1 Egg
5 oz Vegetable fat or butter 1/4 pt Milk
1 tb Black treacle 1 18" sq. clean cotton sheet
2 Apples

--------------------------------GINGER CREAM--------------------------------
8 oz Crabbe's Green Ginger Wine 1/4 pt Single cream
3 Egg yolks

Sieve the flour and mix it with the breadcrumbs, brown sugar and spices.
Melt the butter or vegetable fat gently with the treacle. Mix the
breadcrumbs, currants and sultanas. Beat the egg and milk together and add
to the dry ingredients, with the grated carrot and apple - use you hands.
Add more milk if necessary to give a soft mixture which drops easily from
the spoon.

Put a square of cotton sheet in the pot of boiling water with an upturned
plate on the bottom. Take out the scalded cloth, spinkle it with flour and
put in the dumpling. Draw up the edges, and tie up firmly with white
string, leaving enough room for the pudding to expand. Lower the dumpling
back into the boiling pan. Keep water topped up. Bring back to the boil.
Boil steadily but gently for 4 hours. It can be longer but it shouldn't be
less.

Remove the dumpling and dip it staight in and out of cold water. Unwrap
the dumpling on to a serving plate. The skin will initially be white from
the flour. Put the dumpling on its plate in a very low oven to dry off for
20 minutes, when it will develop a fine, dark glossy skin.

Meanwhile, make the ginger cream. Beat the wine with the egg yolks over
hot water until the mixture is thick, white and fluffy. Stir in 1/4 pint
single cream. Serve it in a pretty glass jug, with the hot pudding.

The dumpling cuts wonderfully rich and dark. Leftover slices are delicious
fried in butter - lovely with cream for a special tea-time treat.

Source: Elisabeth Luard in "Country Living" (British), February 1989. Typed
for you by Karen Mintzias