Favorite British Wise Puddings
The U.K is one of the few places in the world where you can go to a restaurant and find a very long list of different types of pudding on the menu. Puddings are a staple food and there are all kinds of variations of them available. Some English puddings are sweet but others are savory like Black Pudding and Yorkshire Pudding.
Bread and butter pudding is a very big deal in England and is made of thin slices of bread, sultana raisins, butter, cinnamon, cream, eggs, sugar and nutmeg. The whole thing is baked in an oven and then served for breakfast or dessert.
A Bakewell pudding consists of a layer of jam that is then covered with an egg and almond filling. The cherry version of a Bakewell pudding is very popular and is usually topped with a single glace cherry.
Semolina (wheat pudding) is another favorite. It is made with milk, eggs, flavoring and sugaring. Semolina is cooked slowly in milk, sweetened with sugar and flavored with vanilla and Semolina pudding can be served with raisins, currants or sultanas stirred in or with a dollop of jam in the center.
Another classic is treacle pudding which is made from black treacle, butter, eggs and flour. This is a pudding that is steamed in the oven for two hours and then draped with a generous topping of golden syrup and dollops of Devon cream or custard.
Hasty pudding got its name because it was so quick to make. It is a simple thickened mixture of eggs, flour, milk and cinnamon.
Making English custard is also ridiculously simple and simply consists of vanilla, egg yolks, corn flour and sugar that is whisked together and reduced over a double boiler until it has the custard flavor. Custard is also used in dishes like Trifle Pudding in which the custard is layered with sponge cake, whipped cream, syrups, fruits, cookies, nuts, spices and liqueur.
Custard is also often poured over apple crumble pudding which is brown sugar, crumbled pastry and apples baked into a pudding in an oven.
Lardy cake is pudding-like bread that is made from rendered lard, sugar, flour, spices, raisins and currants. It is absolutely soaked in lard as it bakes and for this reason is also sometimes called the dripping cake. It is definitely one of those traditional foods that tastes good but is not so good for you!