Before I talk about the recipe which by the way was a teeny bit fussy but not difficult at all, I wanted to briefly talk about steamed pudding molds. Technically, you really don't need a fancy mold to make a steamed pudding, you can use just about anything, a cloth tied with string, a heatproof jar, even a flower pot will do as long as it has a lid (and a lid can mean a kitchen towel tied with butcher string) and wont explode from the heat. Having made steamed puddings with 2 kinds of molds and a lidded clay pot I'll be honest here and tell you that it IS really nice having the right piece of equipment on hand like a mold that is designed for a steamed pudding, but, there is no reason why you should pay a lot of money for it. I've seen modern versions available for purchase at specialty kitchen shops that are no better than some of the older versions you can find on eBay, at a tag sale or a thrift shop, you just have to be patient when looking for one. If you do go the eBay route; search: "pudding mold" or "steamed pudding mold" you'll get at least a page of choices. You’ll have to sift through a lot of Jell-O mold auctions but the steamed pudding ones are in there too, I promise. My only advice with the eBay auctions is to watch for a few days before bidding, so you can get an idea of what these go for. A lot of dealers will tell you that the item is "rare", "vintage", or "retro" when many of the molds (especially the football shaped ones) come up for auction quite frequently. I'm not insinuating that there aren’t any rare, vintage, or retro pudding molds out there really all I’m saying is that unless that is what you are specifically looking for then I see no reason why you can't pick up a decent steamed pudding mold for a price that should make both you and the seller happy. ANYWAY, I'm sure you don’t need me telling you how to find bargains on eBay so I'll just move on now.

1. Combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon water in a small, heavy saucepan; set over medium heat. Cover, and cook until sugar has melted. Remove cover, and continue cooking, swirling pan occasionally, until sugar turns a deep amber. Carefully pour caramel into pudding mold; tip so caramel coats mold evenly. Set mold aside.

I was pretty skeptical about this being enough water to melt the sugar, really, just a tablespoon to a 1/2 cup of water? Already at this stage my brow was starting to sweat and I was thinking that maybe Martha recipes are just cursed.

Much to my surprise the water and sugar ratio worked and I soon had a pot full of little sugar bubbles of love.

I snapped this shot a little too soon because I did get a deeper color a few seconds later but even here I was quite happy with the deep amber color I achieved.

Swirling is not as easy as you would think. The mold got VERY HOT and I had to wear my big clunky oven mitts to be able to hold the mold and that just made things awkward. The little girl was quite pleased by my giant hands rarrrr. Anyway, I didn't quite cover the mold entirely but I think I got close enough.

2. Place half of the apple chunks in a small saucepan, and add 2 tablespoons water, 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Place saucepan over low heat, and cook, covered, until apples fall apart, 10 to 12 minutes. Uncover, and cook 5 minutes more, stirring often. Set the applesauce aside.

I tossed about a tablespoon of lemon juice over the apples to keep them from browning. The recipe didn't say to do this and now that I think about it, it didn't matter if I did since the apples were going to be cooked anyway, duh!

This is one of those situations where the recipe doesn't say to let the mixture cool before using it but I will say it; allow extra time to let this cool before adding it to the cake batter later, the batter has raw eggs in it and adding this to it hot would cook the eggs I imagine. My mixture was still too hot when I was ready to add it in and it occurred to me that maybe I should wait, so I stuck the whole pot in the freezer for 10 minutes.

3. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a small sauté pan; add remaining apple chunks and remaining 1 tablespoon granulated sugar. Cook over medium-high heat until apples turn brown on all sides, 3 to 5 minutes. Place apples in the bottom of the mold, distributing evenly so they reach up the sides.

One of the worlds greatest smells, apples frying in butter, oh yeah!

You can't really tell here because I missed the shot but I have been practicing my flipping motion. I was able to toss the apples a few time without spilling any or burning myself. please, hold your applause you are too kind

Here are the apples after being tossed and flipped and allowed to get a nice browned crust on them. I was ready to suspend all operation right there and then and grab a fork, these were tasty. Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, a little tart, a little buttery, a little sweet-- ok, let me stop, because I’m drooling now.

I didn’t do such a great job getting the apples to "reach up the sides" but I'm not quite sure they would have done so anyway, the caramel was melting from the hot apples causing them to slip down into the bottom of the mold. I'm thinking maybe these apples should be cooled before adding them to the mold.

4. Choose a pot large enough to hold the pudding mold with a 2-inch space all around. Place a wire rack or a folded kitchen towel in the bottom of pot; fill with enough water to reach halfway up sides of mold. Cover pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer.

I use a steamer insert, you know the kind you can use for steaming veggies, and it works perfectly!

5. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together 8 tablespoons butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs and molasses; mix well. Add the reserve applesauce, and mix well.

You know how I'm always going on and on about that trick I learned a few years ago about spraying a little flavorless cooking spray on your measuring implement to let things like honey and molasses slide out easily? Well here is an illustration of how the cooking spray acts as a barrier between the measuring cup and the molasses. I never have to stick my finger in and drag it around in a circular motion to get the sticky stuff out ever again. I really am a dork aren't I?

6. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; stir in breadcrumbs. Add to the applesauce mixture. Stir batter until just combined.

This was a very bad time to realize that the only breadcrumbs I had in the house were seasoned ones. I had to stop everything and bundle myself and the girl up and go out in the "raging nor'easter" (this was Monday and the storm wasn’t as bad as the weather people predicted but whatever). I hesitated about leaving because I was afraid of leaving the batter with the raw eggs out but then decided I had gone too far to stop everything so I covered the bowl and we ran out. The store is around the corner, and usually I let the girl walk by herself and I follow close behind but I was in a hurry so I carried her to the store only to find this tremendous line of people frantically buying bread and water because of the storm. Ok, out of my way now this is not a big storm people! On the way home the girl insisted on walking by herself and holding the breadcrumbs, it was actually kind of cute but I couldn't appreciate it because I was worried about those raw eggs just sitting on the counter in my sweltering apt. Everything was just fine when we got home, I'm silly.

This is the batter after adding the cooled applesauce. Notice the cool action shot I got of the whirling blades...

The finished batter just before being packed into the mold

I made the mistake of putting the lid on the mold and I think the steam from the hot apples melted the sugar. I know the shot is blurry but you can kind of see how suddenly the sides were NOT sugar coated.

7. Fill pudding mold with batter; clamp on lid. Place mold in a pot of simmering water. Cover pot, and cook until a toothpick inserted into middle of pudding comes out clean, about 1 hour 40 minutes. Check water often, keeping it at a steady, low simmer. Transfer mold to a wire rack to cool, 15 minutes.

This is the pudding ready to go. I had another moment of Martha Stewart doubt here because I was not convinced that the batter was not going to stick to the mold. I kept thinking I should have done a last minute spritz of cooking spray because I've had trouble in the past with steamed puddings not un-molding properly but, it was too late, I put the lid on and hoped for the best.

This is my lovely pudding just before I placed the lid on the stock pot and dimmed the lights.

I left steamed pudding alone in the kitchen with some burning candles and mood music hoping that the atmosphere of the peaceful kitchen would encourage the pudding to happily steam away. A few feet away the girl and I banged on her keyboard and danced an ancient dance to call for good pudding steam upon our house.

The recipe said an hour and 40 minutes but I let mine go for 2 hours. Past experience with steamed puddings has taught me to let the pudding steam for longer than the recipe states. This is right after I pulled it from the bath. You can see how much it had risen.

8. When ready to serve, invert the pudding onto a serving plate. If any of the apple chunks stick to the mold, remove them, and rearrange them on the top; slice.

I was so nervous about un-molding and ruining the cake. I ran a knife around the inner edge and then again near the middle to loosen everything. I'm not sure if those extra steps were necessary because to my great surprise the cake un-molded without incident!

Written by Deb on March 4, 2005 04:02 AM