Wrapping a pudding for steaming (2024)

FAQs

Wrapping a pudding for steaming? ›

-Lay a sheet of aluminium foil over a sheet of greaseproof paper (these need to be large enough to wrap generously around the pudding bowl). Pick up both and fold a vertical pleat down the centre. Wrap the pudding bowl in the foil and paper, positioning the pleat down the centre of the mouth of the bowl.

The pan or steamer attachment should be covered with a lid as this creates the steamy enviroment in which the pudding cooks, as well as trying to limit the evaporation of water from the pan and the condensation that will build up in the kitchen.

Make sure the base of the pudding bowl is not in direct contact with the base of the pan. -Add enough water to reach halfway up the sides of the pudding bowl. -Cover the pan tightly with the lid. Steam the pudding according to the recipe instructions.

Also note that fruit cakes and Christmas puddings should not be stored directly touching foil as the foil can react with the fruits and taint the flavour, so you should re-wrap the pudding with a disc of greaseproof on the surface if you are going to store it just covered with foil.

Place the pudding into the steamer set over a saucepan of simmering water, or use a large saucepan with a saucer in the bottom. Steam for several hours, or as recipe indicates. Top up water when necessary. When the pudding is steamed, cut the string around the bowl.

Steamed puddings need to be properly sealed before cooking to prevent them from going soggy. This is possible even if you don't have a special pudding dish with a dedicated lid. -Lay a sheet of aluminium foil over a sheet of greaseproof paper (these need to be large enough to wrap generously around the pudding bowl).

Step 6. Carefully lower your pudding into the boiling water. Place the lid on your saucepan adjust the heat so that the water is only just boiling. Follow your recipes instructions for cooking length being careful to regularly check the water level is adequate.

The basins are to be filled with mix to the level line, giving room for expansion during cooking. You don't need to foil or tie with string, the lid is designed to let air escape making it ideal in a pressure cooker. you can stand then in a pan and boil for many hours.

If you have difficulties finding a pudding basin then a Pyrex bowl, or similar heatproof glass bowl, could be used. However the shape is different so you will have a wider, squatter pudding.

I like to cover the surface of each serving with a piece of plastic wrap, which prevents the formation of a chewy “skin” on the pudding as it cools.

Does pudding need to be covered? ›

Don't cover when it's still hot

Do not cover when the pudding is still hot, but should be covered when the pudding has cooled. This is to avoid the presence of steam which makes the pudding runny.

Cut a disc of baking parchment (parchment paper) to fit the top of the bowl, butter the disc and rest it butter side down on to the sponge batter in the bowl. Tightly wrap the bowl completely in a double layer of clingfilm and a double layer of foil before putting the wrapped bowl into the steamer.

Steaming foods like vegetables, tamales, seafood, and grains with the lid on supplies gentle, moist heat that will cook these foods to perfect tenderness without drying them out. "When you steam vegetables, you want the lid to trap the evaporating liquid in the pot, sealing the steam inside," says Welsh.