Suzie's Pudding
Why I Love This Recipe
Real comfort food.
This is one version of a very popular local winter dessert – every family has its own version, sometimes a secret jealously guarded. My sister got this recipe from her mother-in-law and our family adopted it, although nobody has ever been able to figure out who Suzie was. This is a BIG recipe – it serves at least 10-12 people – one can prepare half, or keep left-overs for a day in the refrigerator. If you like it very saucy/syruppie- use half the batter for the full amount of syrup.
Ingredients You'll Need
For syrup:
6 cups warm water
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
For dumplings:
3 cups cake flour
3 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
3 tablespoons smooth apricot jam
½-1 cup milk
Directions
Use a large, deep saucepan with a lid. Let the sugar melt in the warm water for the syrup, bring to the boil.
Remove from the stove and stir in the vanilla. Set aside.
Sift dry ingredients for dumplings together.
Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in apricot jam.
Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, alternating with milk – the batter should be fairly liquid, but not so much as to break up when the dumplings are added to the syrup.
Bring syrup back to the boil and add batter in ¼-cups full to the syrup. Work fast, cover the saucepan, turn heat down to medium low, and cook for 25 minutes before lifting the lid at all. After 30-40 minutes the dumplings should be cooked – test with a skewer.
Serve the dumplings and sauce hot, accompanied by custard and runny cream.
Sometimes I stir some sliced fresh peaches into the syrup just before I add the dumplings. I can imagine that a cupful of raisins stirred into the batter would also be good.