Clootie Dumpling Recipe
Ingredients:
125g suet
250g plain flour
125g oatmeal
250g mixed sultanas and currants
1 tablespoon of golden syrup
75g sugar
2 lightly beaten eggs
1 teaspoon of ginger
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
4 tablespoons of milk
1 tablespoon of flour for the cloth
How To Make Clootie Dumpling
1. Rub the suet into the flour and add oatmeal, baking powder, sugar, sultanas and currants and the ginger and cinnamon. Blend together and add the eggs and syrup. Stir well and add just enough milk to firm.
2. If you are using a cloth (cloot), put it into boiling water first then spread onto your table and sprinkle a liberal amount of flour over the inside. Put the mixture into the middle and tie up, leaving a wee bit of space for the mixture to expand.
Taste Ye Back: Great Scots and the Food That Made Them describes how the traditional skin is formed by the sprinkling of flour and sugar into the cloot cloth before it is filled with the mixture. The clootie dumpling skin would have traditionally been dried in front of the open fireplace though modern cooks may now do the drying of the skin in the oven. Though the actor and entertainer John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood) describes his mum's way of forming the skin on their clootie dumpling as each family member taking a turn to slap the dumplings bum prior to it going into the pot of boiling water!
Traditionally silver pennies would be added to the Cootie Dumpling mixture. Sue Lawrence in her book Scots Cooking: The Best Traditional and Contemporary Scottish Recipes suggests wrapping 5p pieces or charms in waxed or greaseproof paper and adding these to the mixture which Sue spells as Cloutie Dumpling.
The book Nick Nairn's New Scottish Cookery suggests using an old pillowcase or a square of muslin as an alternative for the cloot.
3. Place an upside-down saucer at the bottom of a deep pan and put the tied cloot in and cover with boiling water and simmer for about 3 hours.
4. If you'd rather use a bowl it will need to be greased before adding the mixture. Leave an inch space at the top for the pudding to expand. Cover with greaseproof paper and tie.
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