Stardew Valley #55: Plum Pudding

 Ingredients: Wild Plum, Wheat Flour, Sugar

Item Description: A traditional holiday treat.

The description suggests this is meant to be something like christmas pudding..? But christmas pudding, aka "figgy pudding" is neither made with plums nor is it typically made with figs anymore. You're also supposed to age a christmas pudding for several weeks, I'm not doing all that! I did however, find a recipe for a steamed pudding known as plum duff! Sounds perfect.

First we measure out the dry ingredients, starting with some sifted self-raising flour. Seems its equal parts SR flour, breadcrumbs, dried fruit, suet/fat, and sugar

I don't know the difference between suet and lard so I bought a block of lard. It's so cheap. What could go wrong!? Also we have to grate it, weird.

There we go we have our flour, breadcrumbs, grated lard, dark brown sugar, and I was pleased to use up various ancient packets of dried fruit from the back of my baking cupboard. I didnt' have currants, but i had a bit of dried cranberries, raisins and sultanas. 

Let's not forget the last dry ingredient, a bit of christmassy spice! We've got nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon.

And now for the plums! This might be another unorthodox choice, but I saw a big jar of sweet plums in syrup which seemed both convenient and easy. With a small knife ill just dice up about 220g of them. I don't mind a bit of fruit chunk in my pud.

Next we also add the juice of an orange, and grate the peel (with our sticky lard grater) for the zest. I'll go easy on the juice because the plums are already a bit wet.

And even more wets, 2 eggs and a couple tbsp of spiced rum.

Time to mix it all around. It's starting to smell nice actually! My arms are tired... why didn't I use my cake mixer for this..??

Next we actually have to slop it up even more with 200ml of milk! Does this look right? How should i know? Whos even heard of plum duff!?

Now i grease up some containers with a bit more of that lard. I was planning on making mini puddings, but ive got literally so much batter than im gonna have to do one mega one as well!

I hope these are tasty... Now to cover them up and uh, find a way to fit them all in my steamer...

I'm nothing if not an innovater. I'm steampunk.  Anyway now these gotta steam for THREE WHOLE HOURS

Well, I gave the small ones a bit less time to cook and the big one a bit more time... Heres what its looking like cooked, maybe a slight raw patch in the middle but I think ill finish each portion when I reheat them in the microwave as I eat them. I have a lot to get through by the looks of it.

Alright moment of truth!!

*****

(BTW it came out the pot just fine and unbroken I just thought this pic looks way better even for the comparison shot.) Thank fuck this is nice!! Because its so dense and there's so much of it. It's a little like a christmas pudding but its less fruity/nutty/boozy and more mild and spongey. Definitely what I imagine an old-fashioned british dessert to be like. Definitely best to serve hot. Would be improved with some cream or custard.