Golden Syrup Steamed Pudding #recipe from @MysteryMacRae

 

The last recipe I shared was for homemade Golden Syrup, and I promised my next post would be this recipe for Golden Syrup Steamed Pudding. Steamed pudding is a classic British dessert made in a thick crockery dish called a pudding basin or a pudding bowl. I have a lovely blue and white striped one from Cornwall. 

The pudding turned out exactly as I’d hoped – a warming, comforting, not overly sweet dessert for a cold day. I'm not thrilled about using parchment paper and aluminum foil, only to toss them afterwards, but don't know of a good alternative. If you do, please let me know in the comments. We all enjoyed the pudding immensely. Here’s how you can make one, too.

Ingredients

110g (1/2 cup) golden syrup – divided

175g (12 Tablespoons – 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

125g (5/8 cup) brown sugar

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

175g (1 1/3 cup) self-rising flour

1/4 cup milk

More golden syrup to serve (we didn’t add more, though next time I might make pouring custard to go with the pudding).

You'll also need a 2 pint pudding basin, parchment paper; aluminum foil; heavy cotton string; a large deep soup kettle with lid; a heatproof saucer, trivet, or steamer basket for the pudding basin to sit on inside the kettle 

Directions

Butter a 2-pint pudding basin then pour 1/4 cup golden syrup in the bottom. Set aside.

Beat the remaining 1/4 cup golden syrup, the butter, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in half of the eggs, then stir in half the flour. Stir in the rest of the eggs and flour along with the milk.

Spoon the mixture into the pudding basin (it shouldn’t come up above 1-inch from the top). Smooth the surface.

Cut a circle of parchment twice the diameter of the top of the pudding basin. Make a 1-inch pleat down the middle of the circle. Repeat with the aluminum foil. The pleats allow the pudding to rise as it cooks.

not exactly round, but it worked

Cover the pudding basin with the pleated parchment circle with the pleat over the center of the basin. Cover the parchment with the pleated foil.

Tie the pudding tightly around the rim with the string. Make a lifting handle by crossing more string across the top of the basin. This will help you lift the pudding out of the kettle after its cooked. Trim excess paper and foil, leaving a 1-inch border, and turn the edges in on themselves to seal.

Put a heatproof saucer, small trivet, or steamer basket in the large, deep kettle. Put the pudding basin on top. Add enough just-boiled water to the pan to come halfway up the sides of the basin. Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid (I added a layer of foil across the top of my kettle because the lid has a steam hole in it).

Cook, over lowest heat, allowing the pudding to steam in gently simmering water for 1 3/4  hours. Make sure the kettle doesn’t boil dry – add more just-boiled water if necessary.

The pudding is done when a fine skewer inserted into the middle of the pudding (through the foil and parchment) comes out clean. Turn off the heat. Carefully lift the basin out of the kettle and let stand for 5 minutes.

Cut the string from the basin. Discard the foil and parchment. Run a flat-bladed knife around the edge of the pudding to loosen the sides. Carefully invert onto a plate and remove the basin. Cut into wedges and serve with extra golden syrup, pouring custard, or vanilla ice cream. 

In bookstores and libraries now!

About Argyles and Arsenic – book 5 in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries:

After 93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her eccentric solution? She’ll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail, Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from all that’s left.

But a murder during Violet’s party leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse – with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.

Available in hardback and e-book from your locally owned independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Or ask your public library to consider ordering it.

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

 

 

Can You Make Golden Syrup? Yes! #recipe from @MysteryMacRae

Lyle’s Golden Syrup is an elusive ingredient here in the Midwest. It’s available online, but where’s the fun in that? Golden syrup—say it slowly and it sounds like a really top-shelf ingredient, one without equal. I, for one, always say ‘golden syrup’ with complete reverence and taught my children to do the same.

I know golden syrup from my time living in Scotland. According to British bakers, there’s no good substitute for it. Sure, you can approximate it by mixing light corn syrup with a tad of molasses or treacle, but let’s be real (and possibly snooty?) and say that substitutes just are not the same, because whatever you use will impart its own flavor—and that flavor is not golden syrup.

Or we can be practical, versatile cooks and say that honey or maple syrup will be a perfectly lovely variation for any recipe.

Still, I’ve pined for golden syrup for many years now, and finally discovered that you can make it yourself. That sort of removes the mystique, so I won’t talk about mine with any sense of reverence, but isn’t the color gorgeous?  

You can see a tin of Lyle’s Golden Syrup in Sheila Connolly’s recipe for Treacle Tart. She also used golden syrup or a substitute in Lemon Treacle Slice and Chocolate Biscuit Cake.

My next post, on Saturday March 12^th, will use my homemade concoction in Golden Syrup Steamed Sponge Pudding (which I have to make before then—so I’ll do it tomorrow when it’s blustery outside. MMmmmm, steamed pudding.)

 

Golden Syrup

 

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups water 

4 cups sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

(note - the pictured quantities are not accurate measures) 

Directions

Put sugar and water into a saucepan. Stir to combine.

Bring to a boil, stirring regularly to prevent burning until the sugar is dissolved. Stir gently to prevent the sugar water from splashing up the sides of pan and crystalizing there. (I failed at that. Next time I’ll try a gentle whisk.)

When the mixture is boiling, gently stir in the lemon juice. Reduce the heat to very low so that it simmers gently. Continue gently simmering, uncovered and without stirring, for 40-60 minutes, until the syrup is a beautiful, rich, golden color.

Turn off the heat, let your liquid gold sit for a few minutes, then pour the hot syrup into a glass jar and let it cool completely before closing the jar with a tight sealing lid.

You can store the syrup at room temperature for several months, although mine is in the refrigerator.

Makes about 3 cups of syrup.

Tips: If your syrup is too stiff, reheat it and add a bit of water. If it’s too thin, reheat it and caramelize the sugar a bit longer.

Something poisonous is coming March 1, 2022!

 

About Argyles and Arsenic – book 5 in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries:

After 93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her eccentric solution? She’ll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail, Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from all that’s left.

But a murder during Violet’s party leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse – with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.

Available for pre-order in hardback and e-book from your locally owned independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Or ask your public library to consider ordering it.

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

 

 

Sticky Toffee Pudding #recipe from @MysteryMacRae

 

Sticky Toffee Pudding is easy to make and tastes absolutely luxurious. I’d never eaten it before a week or so ago, but have always loved the sound of it, so I wrote it into Thistles and Thieves, book 3 in my Highland Bookshop Mystery series. Good food is mentioned in those books, but there aren’t any recipes included.

There are a number of recipes for Sticky Toffee Pudding out there. I tried one from Mark Bittman, which was very good. Then I tried one from Coinneach Macleod, the Hebridean Baker, and WOW! Everyone in the house agrees that it’s groaningly superb. We also think it looks better on the plate because it’s made in individual portions (in a muffin tin) rather than as a sheet cake.

We were thorough in testing this recipe for you. We tried it warm from the oven. WOW! We tried it at room temperature. WOW! We tried it re-warmed in the microwave. WOW! I hope your mileage doesn’t vary.

 

Sticky Toffee Pudding

(adapted from The Hebridean Baker: Recipes and Wee Stories from the Scottish Islands)

 

 

Ingredients for the pudding

I used the metric measures but have included approximate equivalents.

200g (2 cups) pitted dates

200ml (.845 cup – I know, weird. It’s between ¾ and 1 cup) hot black tea

1 teaspoon baking soda

80g (5 ¾ tablespoons) butter

2 tablespoons molasses

50g (¼ cup) brown sugar (I used dark brown. Light would be fine.)

2 eggs

150g (1 ¼ cups) flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

 

Ingredients for the sauce

150g (10 ½ tablespoons) butter

300g (1 ¾ cups) brown sugar

1 tablespoon molasses

200ml (.845 cup) heavy whipping cream

 

 Directions for pudding

Chop dates into small bowl, pour black tea over them, stir in baking soda, and let sit for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325.

Cream butter and molasses together. Add sugar, eggs, flour, and baking powder. Mix well.

When dates and tea have cooled, mash the dates into the tea, then stir into batter.

Spoon batter evenly in greased muffin tin. Bake 20 minutes – until risen and firm.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes.

 

Directions for sauce

In a saucepan over medium low heat, stir and melt butter, sugar, and molasses. Simmer, stirring, until sugar is dissolved.

Turn up the heat and let the mixture bubble for a few minutes to create a toffee-colored sauce.

Remove from heat and stir in cream.

 

To  serve

Put one of the puddings upside down in a bowl. Pour or spoon sauce over the pudding. Wait for the WOWs (while gobbling yours so no one else grabs it).

 

Something poisonous is coming March 1, 2022!

 

About Argyles and Arsenic – book 5 in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries:

After 93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her eccentric solution? She’ll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail, Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from all that’s left.

But a murder during Violet’s party leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse – with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.

Available for pre-order in hardback and e-book from your locally owned independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Or ask your public library to consider ordering it.

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

 

S.C.O.N.E.S. and Scones – A Potluck, Spotlight Special by @MysteryMacRae

 

Current scones

Maya Corrigan, our usual Potluck Monday host, kindly shared today with me. Thank you, Maya! And just like a community potluck, today’s post is some of this and some of that—half Spotlight Sunday, where I’ll introduce you to myself and to the S.C.O.N.E.S., and half Potluck Monday where I’ll ask whether you eat scones or scones.

I grew up in a family with six kids, a variety of pets, magazines, newspapers, shelves and shelves of books, and a mom and dad who read to us at bedtime long past the point we could read to ourselves. As a crew, we were quite spread out. Mom and Dad had someone in high school every year for twenty years. Wow. We ate supper together every night. I loved the reading and the family meals. I love my family.

All the wild MacRaes c. 1960
Mom took the picture, Dad is in the back of the boat, I'm in a life jacket on the right.

My sweet boys in 1986.
Ross, with the pot, does most of our cooking these days.
Gordon has two boys of his own who like to cook with him.

From pesky sister to wife and mom, and through jobs as a museum curator and director, independent bookstore manager, and connecting children with books at the public library, stories and books have been a common thread in my life. My first short story came out in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine in January 1990. My fifteenth book, Argyles and Arsenic, comes out March 1^st. You can find a list of my stories and books here.

Argyles and Arsenic is the fifth book in my Highland Bookshop Mysteries. Writing these books has been my way of returning to Scotland where I spent a year studying British prehistory at Edinburgh University. I love Scotland and don’t get back often enough. The series’ ensemble cast—four women who buy Yon Bonny Books in Inversgail on the west coast of the Highlands—are natural amateur sleuths. Of course, right? They’re so good that they’ve been dubbed the Shadow Constabulary of Nosy Eavesdropping Sleuths (S.C.O.N.E.S.)

As you’ll guess from the title, the latest adventure for the S.C.O.N.E.S. involves arsenic. Also argyle socks, a knitting competition, an evening of decanting and decluttering, a food truck, baked potatoes, murder, and scones—not necessarily in that order.

Words fascinate me as much as stories and books. I like knowing where words come from, how old they are, how they’re used, and how people pronounce them. For instance, if I offer you one of those slightly sweet baked goods that resemble biscuits but aren’t biscuits at all, will I offer you a scone, which rhymes with cone? Not if we’re in Inversgail with the S.C.O.N.E.S. Scone, in Scotland, is almost universally pronounced so that it rhymes with gone and Sean (Sean also rhyming with gone and not bean). In Ireland you’re likely to get a scone (cone). In England and Wales you can’t quite be sure which one you’ll get.

In a massive effort, Cambridge University mapped the variation in scone pronunciation throughout the UK and Ireland. You can see the map here. And you can read a short history of scones at Food Reference.com.

Orange almond scones with cardamom

So do you eat scone-gones or scone-cones? When I lived in Scotland, I was a goner. These days I’m more of a scone-coner. Whichever way you say it, do you have any idea how much we love scones at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen? As of July 30, 2021, we’ve featured 55 recipes for them on the blog (thank you, Vicki Delany, for counting). Here are links to four of the recipes.

Apple-Cheddar Scones from Leslie Budewitz

Traditional Afternoon Tea Scones from Vicki Delany

Savory Herb Scones from Daryl Wood Gerber

Orange Almond Scones with Cardamom from Molly MacRae

If you’d like even more scone recipes from the blog—or if you’re interested in other recipes we’ve featured, particular ingredients, earlier editions of Potluck Mondays, specific authors, etc.—scroll down the right side of the blog until you get below the line of our latest book covers. When you see the search box for our “Blog Archive,” scroll just a little farther and you’ll see “Search This Blog.” Type your search term in the box, hit enter, and you can search for recipes galore (galore is from the Scottish Gaelic gu leóir meaning sufficiently enough).

Thanks for spending time with me today. For anyone who’d like to, you can connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

 

Did you know that pre-orders make the publishing world go round? Part of a publisher’s decision for continuing a series depends on how many books are pre-ordered before the publication date. Writing and publishing are an interesting business. That said, Argyles and Arsenic is available for pre-order in e-book and hardback at Independent booksellers, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon, or ask for it at your public library.

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. 

 

My husband Mike and me at a signing for my first book, Wilder Rumors, in 2007. 
We've lived in Texas, Tennessee, and Illinois.
Mike makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches in the world and he paints.

 

 

 

 

Scottish Oatcakes from Molly MacRae #recipe @MysteryMacRae

 

Oatcakes and a piece of good cheese – Mm-mm! I’m looking forward to March 1^st, when Argyles and Arsenic hits bookstores and libraries, so my next several contributions to the MLK kitchen will be Scottish recipes.

Oatcakes are a traditional Scottish cracker. They’re great on their own or served with salted butter, cheese, pate, smoked salmon, etc. They’re quite easy to make, too, although I attempted to get fancy and make some in the shapes of characters in the book - including Ranger the cairn terrier, Smirr the big gray tomcat, and Butter the yellow kitten. Oh, I had plans! I thought of making one each in the shape of the women who run the bookshop and tearoom, one for the constable, and one for the Mr. Potato Chef food truck that appears in the book.

Sadness. The little dog lost a leg. The cats are hideous. And I gave up trying to freehand anything else. But not entirely. I did do one freehand shape. You can see it on the plate along with the traditional round oatcakes. Do you know what it is? Yes! It’s a vial of arsenic (although it looks more like a rocket ship's re-entry capsule).

The recipe is written with metric amounts. I’ve added the cup and ounce equivalents in parentheses.

 

If you’re looking for more Scottish recipes, here are three from the MLK archives.

Orange Almond Scones with Cardamom

Oat Shortbread with Dark Chocolate and Crystalized Ginger

Mary Jane Maffini’s Great-Great-Grandmother’s Scottish Shortbread

 

Scottish Oatcakes

(adapted from The Hebridean Baker: Recipes and Wee Stories from the Scottish Islands)

 Makes about a dozen, depending on size and shape you cut them

 

Ingredients

200g (2 cups) rolled oats

50g (⅓ cup) pinhead or steel-cut oats, plus extra for dusting

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon brown sugar

75g (⅓ cup) butter

75ml (¼ cup 2 tablespoons) boiling water

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 360 degrees F  (the recipe calls for 180 degrees C which is 360 degrees F). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Stir rolled and pinhead (or steel-cut) oats together. Whir 100g (1 cup) of that mixture in a blender to make oat flour. Return the flour to the bowl. Add salt and sugar.

Stir the butter into the boiling water until its melted. Add to the oat mixture and combine until it begins to hold together in a dough.

Dust your work surface with pinhead oats (Note: I had steel-cut oats which just plain do not dust a work surface. Next time I might dust with whole wheat flour, or I might whir the extra steel-cut oats to make more oat flour and use that.) Roll dough to a thickness of about ¼ inch.

Use a biscuit cutter, or other shape of your choice to cut the dough. (Note: after I gave up being fancy, I used one of the round biscuit cutters I bought when I was a student at Edinburgh University in 1974. Worked like a charm.) Lift the oatcakes with a palette knife or metal spatula and arrange on parchment-lined sheet. Re-roll scraps until dough is used up. (Note: this wouldn’t be traditional, but it would be quick – cut the dough into rectangles or triangles with a chef knife or pizza cutter.)

Bake 20 minutes. Turn oven off. Carefully turn the oatcakes over and return to oven for 5 minutes. (Note: I forgot to turn the oven off before I returned the oatcakes for the last 5 minutes. It didn’t hurt them.)

Remove from oven. Transfer oatcakes to cooling rack.

Serve with salted butter and cheese (or anything else that sounds good!).

 

Something poisonous is coming March 1, 2022!

About Argyles and Arsenic – book 5 in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries:

After 93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her eccentric solution? She’ll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail, Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from all that’s left.

But a murder during Violet’s party leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse – with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.

Available for pre-order in hardback and e-book from your locally owned independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Or ask your public library to consider ordering it.

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.