Serves: Serves ~8
Cost: ~€3.50
Preparation time: ~1 hour 20 minutes
Calories: ~400 if divided by 8
For those of you of a nervous dispostion, I suggest you look away now for today I’m going to tell you a story of horror and woe. Disturbing imagery lies ahead and I can’t be held responsible for any nightmares resulting in the reading of this tale of bunny brutality!
Nah, fear not – I’m not talking the fluffy variety of bunnies here. Rather more the chocolate variety. I happened across a bunny nest (do they live in nests? Who knows…) on Sunday morning. They were guarding a cache of chocolate eggs and let me tell you – no-one, neither bunny nor man, stands in between me and delicious chocolate.
Look at them – sitting there all insolent. I asked nicely to share in their treasure but they continued to refuse, even biting my fingers when I tried to get close. The nerve!
I’d had enough – I had to teach them a lesson. I have a vicious streak so the only option was to destroy one (by eating it!) and you know what? I made the other one watch! Once he knew what I was capable of he soon relinquished control of the chocolate egg stash to me – they’ll know better than to try that again next time they’re in my neighbourhood!
I hope you all had a most excellent Easter weekend and weren’t forced to wrestle any naughty bunnies, just to get a bit of chocolate! I’ve been busy all weekend – cooking, baking, stirring, whisking. My efforts have mostly paid off, though the conserve I was hoping to make was a complete non-starter when I suddenly realised I’d forgotten to buy any vinegar – oopsie! Later in the week for that methinks.
For today, I’ll be posting a Spotted Dick – the rather unfortunately named British pud always guaranteed to cause a few chuckles among friends when mentioned. Did you know that a hospital even renamed the dish to “Spotted Richard” on its patient menu because they feared the name was too racy. Dear oh dear – political correctness gone mad!
The dish itself can be made in a great number of different ways. Not only can the core ingredients differer but even the cooking method as well. A real spotted dick should be quite heavy and solid. As one of the main ingredients is suet it results in a dense pudding which isn’t necessarily to everyone’s taste. There are lighter versions though – in England you can even buy the things in cans and those ones are much more spongey and cakey. The true meaning of the dish has become twisted over the years so many people don’t really know what to expect when you mention “Spotted Dick” these days, apart from “some sort of dessert with fruit inside”. If you’re after the lighter sort of pudding then I’d strongly recommend making my Syrup Sponge. Omit the syrup at the end, and add currants and raisins into the batter and you’re good to go with a good smothering of custard. If you’re after a heavier dessert then read on for this, adapted more to my tastes from BBC Food. Have a great week everyone – I’ll be back on Friday!
Spotted Dick
[learn_more caption=”Video Recipe”]
Ingredients
- 300g Plain Flour
- 3 tsps Baking Powder
- 130g Suet (use Vegetarian Suet if you want a fully Veggie-friendly dish)
- 100g Caster Sugar
- 1 large tasty Apple, like Granny Smith
- 140g Raisins or Currants (or a mix)
- Zest from one large Lemon
- 1 tsp Salt
- 180ml Milk
Instructions
- Start off by taking a clean cloth and placing it into a large pan of water and bringing it to the boil – Allow the cloth to boil for 5 minutes or so while you prepare the pudding. Peel, core and grate the apple and place into a bowl with the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, raisins/currants, lemon zest and suet.
- Rinse the boiled cloth in cold water and wring out as much water as you can. Use the damp cloth to line a heat-proof or metal basin and then add the milk to the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl. Mix well to form a dense batter and spoon into the cloth-lined basin. Bring the sides of the cloth together over the top of the mixture, leaving room for expansion, and then tie together tightly with kitchen string.
- Place the basin into a large pan of water, being sure that it cannot tip over, and that water cannot bubble inside. If necessary, suspend the bowl using a sieve or colander. Bring the water to the boil and cover the pan. Reduce the heat a little and allow to simmer for about 1 hour. A bit more time may be required, depending on the shape of your bowl.
- Carefully unwrap the pudding and turn onto a plate. Serve with cream, custard, syrup, honey – just about anything you fancy – and enjoy!
I’M FIRST! haha. oh charles the name of this pudding just made me chuckle to myself. i’ve heard of it before, but never seen it in the making, so now I kno what it is! very curious to find out what difference a steamed cake like this tastes comapred to baking, and I’m sure the suet makes a lot of difference too! a very traditional chinese cake that my mum makes is done by steaming too, it actually looks pretty similar texture wise!
Hi Shuhan – the suet definitely makes a big difference. It’s much fattier and unhealthier with all that suet! I think I’d have a problem to eat this very regularly… it sure strains the stomach, but it makes a lovely treat every now and again 🙂
haha you know my position on saturated fat, iI think it’s all good in moderation, so I’m not in anyway discouraged! it’s just not somethign I often just have in my kitchen though, need the motivation to go get it, and this looks like a pretty good one (: I’m just really hooked onto the idea of steaming a cake, because I always assumed it to be a chinese thing!
Whoopee!! Ah, now I see where I’ve gone wrong … my amount of milk is so much less than this. And I’m assuming the added apples also add to the moisture level of this. I shall endeavor! … one day. Thanks for doing this, Charles!
Hi Ping – I hope it works out for you 🙂
Hehee. I was wondering what I’m going to see on your blog when I saw your email notification! LOL. Never heard of this dish before and I think this dish deserve better name that sounds more delicious…^^
Same. Same. 🙂
Hi Nami – apparently “Spotted” refers to the fruit and “Dick” is an old word for pudding… I guess back when this was popular many years ago it didn’t sound half as hilarious as it does today 😀
That pudding is screaming, PUT CARAMEL SAUCE ON ME! I would hesitate to use Suet for obvious reasons. Is there anything else one can use?
That poor little bunny, but I certainly understand you had to do what you had to do, Charles. Chocolate bunnies were rampant all over the house, and we’ll have even more of them next weekend when my family comes for dinner. It’s going to be a busy week for me, I’ll be preparing my three dishes for the Titanic Party on Saturday and then I’ll have to prepare a few things for our “Easter” dinner on Sunday with my family. I hope you have a great week.
PS I also had a little chuckle when I read the name of this post 😉
Hi Eva – caramel sauce sounds like an excellent addition, I’ll try that!
As for suet – I actually used vegetarian suet because I didn’t have enough beef suet left. It’s made from blended, solidified vegetable oils or something like this. The good thing is, in England, you can buy beef suet and veggie suet all ready to use in boxes, ready-shredded and coated in flour so it lasts longer.
One could probably use butter ultimately, though I’m not sure of the effect it would have on the final pud.
Hope your dinner parties went well – have a wonderful week!
Okay, admittedly I giggled at the title. 😉 But I’m really glad you posted this one. I’ve heard of spotted dick, but never really knew what it was – and certainly didn’t know it was a dessert. It looks really good actually. And I’d say you taught those bunnies a lesson! LOL. 🙂
Hi Kristy – I think it’s not ever going to be my favourite dessert but it makes a nice change every now and again! I heard that the remaining bunny was seeking political asylum with my wife… I had to go medieval on it to teach it not to go behind my back… “Off with his head!”.
Hello Charles:
I must have missed something there, don’t see the joke.
Anyways I love spotted dick.
It’s something my Grandma made and your recipe brings bake wonderful memories.
I’ll have to give your recipe a try.
Charlie
Hi Charlie – my grandma used to make something wonderful too… she was from Scotland and made a traditional Scottish dish called a “Clootie Dumpling”… it was incredible, like a big brown ball with fruit inside. I’ve been meaning to make one myself – I wish I could get her recipe 🙁
Hi Charles:
This may not be your grandma’s, but is supposed to be a winner.
Let me know.
http://www.islemusicscotland.com/pdf/clootie-dumpling.pdf
Charlie
I always wondered what spotted dick was! 🙂
Ah – now you know! (And knowing is half the battle!)
I think the bunny had it coming 😉 I love this recipe, can you believe I´ve never made it? Did try to explain it once to Big Man with all its cheeky connotations but despite using my dictionary and waggling things around…he just didn´t understand! Hey ho, no excuse now, I can make it instead. And as for that stupid hospital….do you think it was in Bristol City?!
Haha, thanks Chica – I hope you’re able to give it a try sometime 🙂 As for the hospital… I think it was somewhere in Gloucestershire, so not too far away from Bristol at least 😀
Hi Charles, I have heard of this Spotted Dick (or Richard) but never seen it or knew the ingredients. It does sound tasty and I love the way it looks. BTW I am not sure what vegetarian suet is exactly. Poor bunny you actually bit his head off, LOL.
Hi Suzi – In England they sell beef suet ready shredded, coated in flour for longer life in packets. Vegetarian suet is basically the same, looks the same and everything, but it’s made with solidifed vegetable oils. Not sure how they make it, I guess the same sort of way they make hard margarine maybe 🙂
This looks magical, Charles. As in, however do you get a crust and a brown color on a steamed pudding? Yours is beautiful.
Hi Sharyn – it was already looking quite brown with a bit of a crust when I remove it from the bowl – after all, it’s not being cooked directly by the steam, but by the heat radiating through the basin in the saucepan. However, I cooked it earlier in the day, but didn’t get around to photographing it until later, just when I was about to eat it and I’d been heating it up in the oven for a bit which probably made it a bit more golden. It was actually nice that way, though I didn’t mention that since steaming and then oven heating isn’t really the traditional way of serving it.
I’ve always wondered what was in Spotted Dick, and have never tasted the pudding. The texture of yours looks really amazing both outside and within, and makes me want to try some in spite of the suet! I think that chocolate bunny got what he deserved after all that taunting. Hate to say it, but there it is.
Hi Betsy – I don’t understand what people have against suet… some of the additives and chemicals in food are way more icky than a bit of shredded beef fat, however you can buy vegetarian suet, which is made from vegetable oils… kind of like shredded, flour coated hard margarine!
This pudding’s name has always made me laugh and I have always wanted to prepare it just to be able to announce its name at the table 😉 It looks delicious and quite easy actually. I have always thought this pudding making method was much more complicated…
I have heard about some places changing this funny name. Ridiculous! If I were British I would sign petitions in order to keep this name!
Thanks for posting this fantastic pudding and for doing it under its real name!
(Have you really used suet? Beef suet? It sounds so exciting! Have you bought it in France? I think I sometimes must sound like a cooking geek 😉 )
Hi Sissi – I’m glad you enjoyed the post – someone unsubscribed from my email post alerts yesterday… I got an email notification from Google about it. I hope they weren’t offended by the title of the post 😀
I was going to use beef suet – I still have some left over from Christmas when I was making my mincemeat but it wasn’t quite enough to make this so I used vegetarian suet, from solidifed vegetable oils. You can buy both in England, ready shredded and coated in flour for longer life. I’ve never them sold in the “ready to use” state in France, so I would have to buy the big lumps of fat directly from the butcher I think and I’m not so keen on that 😀
Incredible! I’m sorry you have lost one subscriber, but at least now you know all those who follow your blog and who are subscribed are open-minded people 😉
Is beef suet melted beef fat or ground beef fat? Sorry for bothering you…
If it’s only ground beef fat, then I would go to my butcher’s and ask him to grind some beef fat. If it’s melted, it would take a long time, effort and the smell in the kitchen would be awful!
I can buy here melted pork fat, but not beef. I ask just in case I make something from your blog and want to be very old-fashioned 😉 (I have my eyes on pasties…)
To be honest, it might just have been a coincidence that they unsubscribed on that day. If they truly did unsubscribe because of the post title though I’d hate to think how many people might go if I ever made “Faggots“!!
Suet is grated beef or mutton fat, but it has to be from a specific area of the cow/sheep I think. It should be from around the loins or kidneys as it is very hard there, but grates and melts very well. If you wanted to store it at all then you should just need to grate it finely and toss it in flour, which should help it keep! Good luck! 🙂
As an American I can’t help but giggle at the name too! I knew it was food of some sort, but never actually knew what it was.
Hehe, hi Jen – it’s pretty funny… apparently “Dick” is an old word for pudding, so there you go 😀
Hahaha… the de-eared bunny! (sorry, that sounds cruel but it was a funny story… making the other one watch…haha…terrible… ;0). Your dotted dick looks fabulous Charles (!) – It reminds me of rice pudding in comfort and content… and the thought of serving it up in a warm milk bath has me swooning…;-). So many yummy desserts for us these days Charles!
Hi Kelly 🙂 Thanks for your nice comment! I’ll have another dessert next week which is not suitable at all for kids – looking forward to posting that one 🙂
I love the little ‘pellets’ of white suet. 🙂 I’ve wanted to make a traditional steamed British pudding one day. I’m not sure which one it will be but this one certainly seems straightforward enough. Thank you for sharing another piece of British cuisine with us.
Hi A_Boleyn – I’d recommend a syrup sponge and custard, but cooked the traditional way, steamed. Spotted dicks are good, but heavy on the calories. I think you can’t beat a good steamed sponge to be honest 🙂
I had to laugh at your tale of the bunnies – the poor things didn’t stand a chance really. Sounds like you had a good Easter. Political incorrectness has definitely gone too far if this pud is being renamed Spotted Richard! I wonder if it’s the reason for not seeing it much on menus nowadays.
Hi BakingAddict – I think the whole pudding just kind of “fell out of favour” and stopped being considered cool, so it just stopped being served so much… kind of a shame really 🙁
I always forget what spotted Dick is. It’s not super popular in the states, which is crazy. I mean look how good it looks!
Hehe, thanks Greg – you should launch a campaign to raise its popularity 😉
Why do you need to boil the cloth for 5 minutes? Once it is wet and hot it will not get any wetter nor hotter.
Your spotted Dick is similar to the Chinese 8-jewel rice pudding that is also steamed in a bowl.
Hi Norma – I boil the cloth for 5 minutes or so to make sure it’s really clean and to kind of sterilise it a little. My laundry usually smells a bit like lavender… I have lavender laundry powder and lavender fabric conditioner (because I love me some lavender!) so boiling them ensures that I’ve removed as much scent as possible.
You are SO funny! What a great post! I always eat bunny ears first, too! Happy Easter and your guest post with Just One Cookbook was terrific!
Hi Ann – glad you enjoyed it, and the post on Nami’s blog too 🙂
Ha, ha, very funny about the bunnies. Sadly, our Easter Bunny didn’t deliver any bunnies this year and there were three horrified children in the morning exclaiming, ‘But we always get a bunny. Why didn’t we get a bunny?’ And the reason is rather obvious. When you leave your Easter Egg shopping until the minute before the shops shut on Easter Saturday, you have to buy the slim pickings of what’s leftover. And this year, there were no bunnies. I think Spotted Dick must be a dessert that’s exclusive to the UK. I’ve never heard of it being served anywhere else. And you do have to wonder how it got that name. I do prefer your more heavy and dense version. The weather is all of a sudden very cold here in Sydney and a warm dessert like this smothered in custard would be wonderful xx
Hi Charlie – oh dear… poor children 😀 Are bunnies more popular there than eggs? In England we have eggs in all shapes and sizes and bunnies aren’t so common but in France, the only eggs I can see are these tiny ones in my photos, and also giant Kinder eggs with a huge toy inside. Aside from that, Lindt have cornered the market with their cute little (over-priced) bunnies in various sizes. They also sell chocolate in the shape of a bell too, for some reason…
I have never heard of this dessert before but I have to admit I giggled when I read the title and I did the same with the bunny story.
Steamed cakes are on my “want to try” list. I think the texture and moistness would be amazing
Hi Sawsan – I would definitely recommend trying a steamed sponge one day before anything else… they’re absolutely amazing!
Hi Charles,
The name is hilarious! The dessert sounds wonderful and now I am curious to know how it must taste. I always learn about new recipes and desserts on your blog. It’s really fun.
Hi Asmita – glad I can teach and inspire 🙂 Hope you have a chance to try this English dish some time 🙂
Thank you, Charles! Then there is a chance I can get it! (Maybe even for free if no other customer has this weird idea…)
The worst thing I can do is use pork fat for an old-fashioned, but not British touch.
(By the way, I have recently read a very interesting article written by a French butcher about British beef (vs. French beef). He was saying more or less that if bought from good butchers, British beef is way better than the French one, so maybe I need to have a British steak in order to start liking it? 😉 In the meantime I’m a pork and chicken eater 🙂
I guess it depends on how nice your butcher is. If you have a good relationship with him then I’m sure you can get it for free! If your butcher just things that you are “ignorant foreigner who can’t cook”, which I’m sure my butcher thinks about me, then I’m sure he will not hesitate to invent a “price per kilo” in his head for the fat when he realises that someone actually wants to buy the thing he’d normally be throwing in the trash!
To be honest, I’ve always found French beef really inferior to pretty much every other country’s meat. They like to think they have wonderful cattle, with their Charolais herds but the meat is very poor compared to a lot of English stuff I think.
Charles, if my butcher was unpleasant or I would feel he is haughty, I would never go back to see him (I don’t think he thinks I’m a foreigner anyway, maybe Swiss, but I don’t have a Swiss accent…). In my whole life I must have visited only about 10-15 French butchers and not a single one was unpleasant or had this attitude. Some have better meat, some have worse, but all of them were polite and gave me advice even if the dishes I wanted to make were not French. They are not to judge the customer’s cooking habits but to sell what he wants (this is my humble view). We have already had this discussion I think 😉 If it’s only one or two butchers you were unlucky with, you just have to change the butcher. I didn’t like the first (closest) butcher’s meat, so I changed for a distant one, but excellent. You are still lucky to live in a country where you can choose a butcher among so many!
Hi Sissi – of course, you’re right. I just still feel very bitter about it because for me, it is the very embodiment of French arrogance towards food, not only their own believed superiority, but their disdain for other cultures. While they have some good stuff here, considering the country is also well known for things like Andouillette de Troyes, I would hope they would have a little more … humility I guess.
Of course, it’s not true for everyone at all… Many people are very open-minded about food here these days, but small pockets of these people still exist who rave about how they ate a “omg delicious fecal sausage” for lunch and then scoff when you tell them you’d rather have, for example, a cornish pastie.
I guess my butcher just rubbed me up the wrong way and I do like to hold grudges 😀 Generally he’s nice though… I even asked him a while back if I could buy bones from him for a vietnamese soup I wanted to make… I should really follow up on that!
By the way, I have just clicked at the link and I’m looking forward to see Faggots here too!
Ha! You can forget that… No way am I ever going to make those… haggis once every 5 years and black pudding is about as hardcore as I can get!
Ah, actually maybe they’re not so bad… I was thinking they had much worse stuff inside but checking the link again it doesn’t seem quite so bad. Maybe I’ll make some five euro faggots one day :p
Haha! I didn’t realise you were not a fan of these. They do sound good though. Given the ingredients, they shouldn’t be too expensive 😉 Haggis is one of my “must taste” dishes. When I finally visit Scotland I will not leave without tasting it in a recommended place.
Make sure they serve it with “Neeps and tatties” (Turnips and potatoes)! 😀
Ha, ha, ha! I have heard of this recipe name but never knew what it really was. So glad you posted it, I can’t wait to make this and tell my friends to come over for some “spotted richard!” I just don’t feel lady like saying the “d” word! Thanks for the good laughs and a great recipe! 🙂
Hi Lisa – you could hold a little English tea party – cucumber sandwiches, earl grey tea and this 😀
Whenever I see such recipe titles, it’s difficult not to chuckle! 😀
I totally agree Kiran – it cracks my colleagues up too 😀
divine! rich, delicious and would love to have a slice of this indeed
Definitely rich KB – excellent in small quantities though, and when not worrying about dieting 😀
I don’t know if it was the story or the name of this post that made me crack the hell up. I am still laughing as I type lol.. and can’t see. I loved this Charles
Haha, glad I can keep you entertained Kay 😀
You had to post it! I had a good laugh the first time I spotted this on Porter’s menu (London). It’s highly recommended if we are after a coma especially with a custard or caramel sauce.. Which is why I love it!
Yours looks “healthier” than the one I had before although I think “healthier” seems to be “hors sujet” here!
It’s been 2 years that my husband is asking me to make it. Once I join him in Germany, I should make a small portion of this pudding to make him happy!
Well – I didn’t smother mine in custard this time (I meant to, but couldn’t be bothered to make it)… maybe that’s why it looks healthier? I hope you give it a try 🙂
This looks too good! I’ve only ever heard the name of this dish, never seen it in action. And now want to make it!
Hehe, thanks a lot – you definitely need to serve it with some good custard or a rich caramel sauce if you give it a try! Strongly recommended!
The title had caught my curiosity but as soon as I learned you were making a type of pudding I was hooked. Oh my goodness this sounds so delightful. Hot out of the oven with carmel sauce. Oh my goodness it is just downright sinful. I guess I will have to diet tomorrow. Take care, BAM
Hi Bam – I definitely agree – pile on the caramel sauce and custard and it’s a wonderful treat. Hope you have a chance to try it! 🙂
Spotted Dick sure is something and traditionally British to the core. I knew the name and how it looked like but never actually had it. Frankly, for someone who is only vaguely familiar with the pudding, the canned version looks really off putting haha. Now that I know what’s actually in it and how to prepare it, I may give it a second chance. 😉
Hi Tobias, I think many canned things are pretty off-putting. Us Brits love to can things… you can even get an “English breakfast in a can”, consisting of baked beans, small sausages, bits of bacon and weird bits of egg, lol 😀
Haha, I can’t help but laugh at the name of the pudding..but at least I’m not the only one! 😉 Looks seriously delicious. Hope you had a nice Easter last weekend!
Hehe, thanks Caroline 😀 Hope you had a great Easter too 🙂
This is one of those dishes that I will have to admire from a distance. Suet…even veg suet is impossible to get here. Those bunnies will think long and hard before not sharing with you again.
Hi Karen – if you can’t find ready-prepared, shredded suet you can easily make your own – you just need to get the hard fat from around the loins or kidneys on a cow or sheep and shred it. Any good butcher should in theory be able to sell it to you, so all is not lost 🙂
Charles, your Spotted Richard (pc, indeed) recipe sounds like a good one. I do favor one on the lighter side, with lashings of barely sweetened custard sauce. It’s shocking, now that I think of it, that someone (me!) who has every pot, pan, bowl, gadget imaginable does *not* have a real actual pudding basin. I’ve always intended to get one but have instead made do over the years with a mere bowl!
Hi Jean – I think to be honest pudding basins aren’t so common anymore – not that many people have pudding basins to be honest I think. The era of steamed puddings is over to be honest 🙂
The outcome isn’t at all what I expected as I was reading through the ingredients. It’s quite beautiful and looks very tasty. I do have to admit that I giggled a little when I read the name of the post. What a name for a dish! I’ve never had a Spotted Dick nor anything like it, so I’m quite curious. I might just have to make it some day to see what it tastes like. Thanks for such a fun post!
Hi MJ – the title is pretty funny indeed. Apparently dick is an old word for pudding. I hope you get a chance to try it one day – it’s darn tasty with a big puddle of custard!
I carefully thought about what to write as a comment here, but well, I will just say that the dish looks far more tasty then it’s name )
LOL 😀