Recipe - Cloutie Dumpling With Ginger Cream

THE DUMPLING
1 pound Selfraising flour
6 ounce Fresh brown breadcrumbs
4 ounce Soft brown sugar
1 teaspoon Mixed spice
A little extra cinnamon
5 ounce Vegetable fat or butter
1 tablespoon Black treacle
2 Apples
cored, unpeeled, grated
1 Carrot; grated
8 ounce Currants
8 ounce Sultanas
1 Egg
One fourth pt Milk
1 18" sq. clean cotton sheet

GINGER CREAM
8 ounce Crabbe's Green Ginger Wine
3 Egg yolks
One fourth pt Single cream

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
One fourth 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 teatime treat.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini