Scottish Recipe - Clootie Dumpling!

It was Mr Mc's birthday last week, and I made him one* of these! I am now the BEST WIFE EVAH! *g*

Clootie Dumpling Recipe - Traditional Scottish Suet Fruit Pudding

This recipe is Mr Mc's gran's, so it makes a GIANT clootie, since his gran always made it for family get togethers and birthdays. It's easy to make, but you do have to keep an eye on it when it's boiling to make sure it doesn't boil dry. So it's not something you can ignore while it's cooking.

Clootie refers to the cloth/tea towel that the dumpling is made in.

Ingredients:
24 oz self-raising flour
8 oz sugar (caster/soft brown/granulated all work)
4 oz suet
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
12 oz mixed fruit (or the whole packet if it's 14 oz like the one I used :-D)
1 grated apple
1 tbsp treacle
1 tbsp syrup
1 pint milk (makes a sticky wet dough/moist dumpling)

1 large cotton tea towel/cloth to wrap the dumpling in
String
Huge saucepan, with lid, for boiling
Ovenproof plate to go in bottom of pan
Baking tray lined with greaseproof paper

Put the cloth in a bowl and pour boiling water over it. Leave to cool.
Put all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix.
Add apple, treacle and syrup and mix.
Add milk and mix.

Put upturned plate in bottom of pan to stop the dumpling burning. Use an old one that will survive a heavy dumpling sitting on it for a couple of hours (mine broke this time :-( )
Fill pan with water and bring to boil

Wring out cloth* and spread flat.
Cover cloth with a thick layer of flour; this stops dumpling sticking to cloth and helps to form the dumpling's skin.
Put mixture in cloth, leave room for expansion and tie up ends with the string.
Place in boiling water.
Boil for 2 1/2 - 3 hours, taking care to keep water boiling on a constant fast simmer, topping up as necessary with hot water from the kettle.

Remove from pan, and peel away cloth, careful not to break the dumpling's skin which is very soft just now.

Put dumpling on greaseproof paper lined baking tray, in a warm oven (100 degrees C or equivalent) to dry out for approx half an hour/hour. This forms a nice firm skin.
Clootie is now ready to eat! And it's DELISH!
Slice and eat hot or cold with cream, custard, or butter and jam.
Allow to cool thoroughly then store in an airtight container. Eat within 2 days.

Or, as this is a HUGE clootie, I usually slice and freeze. That way individual slices can be defrosted as needed, and can be reheated in oven, or fried in a little butter, or toasted.

So there you have it, how to make a clootie dumpling. Let me if you've got any questions about making it, or if you try it! And if you do - Enjoy! 



* Last time I made one was 2 years ago. I was the BEST WIFE EVAH! then too. *g*
* make sure cloth is cool enough to touch so you don't burn yourself.

15 comments:

Jayaly said...

I might have to try that. It sounds fab.

BTW, thanks for reccing Ben Aaronovich at Fantasycon. I just finished Rivers of London. Great book. :)

Suzanne McLeod said...

Oh, so glad you enjoyed RoL. Ben's lovely, and his books are fab and lots of fun!

Hope you enjoy the Clootie, if you try!

Hugh Mowat said...

Oh meant to say, you might want to change your "cloot" I had a horrible flashback to "Fatal Attraction" seeing that wee cat's face in your dumpling pot :o)

Hugh Mowat said...

Hi Suzanne, that looks like not a bad recipe. My gran used twice the amount of treacle and no golden syrup and a bit more of the dried spices giving a dark and delicious dumpling. We used to have one made to celebrate our birthdays. She would also put old sixpenny coins wrapped in grease proof paper throughout the dumpling for us to find. I dare say that would probably be a health & safety issue these days :o)

Anonymous said...

Mom (from Bonnie Dundee) made this for us when we were all at home but she called it a "spotted duff"! So glad I found the receipt again. Gloria

Suzanne McLeod said...

Glad it helped, Gloria :-)

Anonymous said...

Fond memories of my Granny making this.. im just trying to make for 1st time 1 hr to go in pot then into the oven it'll go... fingers crossed it works

Anonymous said...

Fond memories of my Granny making this.. im just trying to make for 1st time 1 hr to go in pot then into the oven it'll go... fingers crossed it works

Suzanne McLeod said...

Hope your first clootie turned out okay, and you had a great Xmas! :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi could you do this in a slow cooker while a work?

Suzanne McLeod said...

Hi. Great question, thanks! I think it would be possible to steam the clootie in a slow cooker, and it woudl probably be similar to cooking a Christmas pud in one, except using the cloth rather than a bowl. I haven't tried it but it's a good idea rather ending up with a steamy kitchen and having to watch the pot for hours. I don't know how long it would take, but the timings for a similar sized Christmas pud should work. My only worry is that it would probably have to be on high not low, otherwise the skin wouldn't form quickly enough to stop the clootie from becoming soggy. Hope that helps and let me know if you give it a try. :-)

Margaret said...

I have just made ine to my mums recipe. It was good but didnt form a 'skin' i wondered if it might be the 'prepared' suet .

Suzanne McLeod said...

Hi Margaret, sorry for the delayed reply. The way to form the 'skin' is making sure the cloth has a good covering of flour before wrapping the raw mixture and steaming. Then once the dumpling is cooked carefully peel away the cloth and finish off in the oven and the dumpling should form a lovely skin. Hope that helps, Suzanne :-)

Unknown said...

Hi Suzanne
I'm going to try your recipe for the clootie dumpling, I've tried making them before, one turned out fantastic, the other one turned out mushy and got tossed out for the birds. I'll let you know how this turns out, I enjoy baking, many moons ago I took baking at school instead of French, now that I'm retired I'm going to get into my love of baking again.

Suzanne McLeod said...

Hi Johnny, hope the recipe works out for you, and you enjoy the clootie! thanks for stopping by. :-)

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