This worked out really well!

I'd never made a boiled pudding before. Or baked with suet. Lard, yes, but not suet. I'd used suet in cooking and making things like mincemeat. But I don't think I'd ever done a classic suet pudding before. So this was a bit of an experiment, but also a lot of fun.

I made this as a gluten-free, dairy-free clootie dumpling. I just used a commercial gluten-free flour mix and some rice-based GF breadcrumbs and then swapped in some oat milk for the cow's milk. The flour I used did have some vegetable gums added to try to compensate for the lack of gluten, but my dumpling was still somewhat lacking in structural integrity. I might try adding an extra egg next time, just to help bind it a little more. It was still delicious either way, it just didn't stay intact.

Clootie Dumpling

From BBC Good Food

Ingredients

• 175g fresh white breadcrumbs
• 175g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
• 175g beef suet, grated/shredded
• 100g dark soft brown sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 100g currants
• 175g sultanas
• 2 tbsp black treacle or golden syrup
• 150mL milk
• 1 large egg

Directions

1. Boil a pudding cloth for 15-20 minutes, then wring it out and dust it liberally with flour.
2. Tip the breadcrumbs, flour, suet, sugar, salt, baking soda, spices, and dried fruit into a large bowl and stir to mix.
3. Whisk the treacle or syrup into the milk and egg using a fork until well blended.
4. Stir the mixture into the dry ingredients with a fork or butter knife to make a soft dough.
5. Use the floured pudding cloth to line a large bowl and then press the dough into it to make a large, round ball.
6. Dust the top of the pudding with more flour and then bring the edges of the cloth up around the top of the pudding and tie it off, leaving enough room for some expansion.
7. Fill a large pot with water, place an upturned plate in it, and bring to a simmer.
8. Place your cloth-wrapped pudding into the simmering water, cover, and cook for 3 hours.
9. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
10. Tip the pudding into a colander to drain, then carefully peel off the cloth.
11. Place the pudding on an ovenproof dish or baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes to dry it off and produce the classic skin.
12. Serve sliced with custard, cream, or ice cream—and a dram of whisky if you like.

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Variations

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Version

Ingredients

• 175g gluten-free breadcrumbs¹
• 175g gluten-free flour, plus extra for dusting
• 175g beef suet, grated/shredded
• 100g dark soft brown sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 100g currants
• 175g sultanas
• 2 tbsp black treacle or golden syrup
• 150mL oat milk (or non-dairy milk of your choice)
• 1-2 large eggs

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¹ As noted above, I used some dry, rice-based breadcumbs for my version in order to keep my dumpling gluten-free. This seemed to work fine. That said, I think I'd probably aim to get a loaf of GF bread next time and make my own fresh breadcrumbs. ^Back

Scottish food has the best names! Neeps (turnips), tatties (potatoes), clapshot (mashed neeps and tatties with chives), skirlie (suet-fried oats and onions)... the list goes on.

I was initially going to make some clapshot to go with the haggis, skirlie, and whiskey sauce for Reiver's birthday. But it ended up working out better to do a pot of plain mashed potatoes and then have the other veggies separate. At which point I figured it might be fun to just do up a few extra tatties, grab some cabbage, and turn it into rumbledethumps. (I mean, it's worth making for the name alone!)

Rumbledethumps

From BBC.co.uk

Ingredients

• 600g potatoes, peeled and cut into large pieces
• 400g turnips, peeled and cut into large pieces
• 75g butter, divided
• 250g cabbage (preferably savoy), sliced thin
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 25-50g cheddar cheese, grated

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 23cm (9") square baking dish or other large casserole dish.
2. Place the potatoes and turnips in a pot with enough water to cover them and bring to a boil.
3. Cook until tender, then drain and return to the pot.
4. Meanwhile, melt 50g of the butter over medium heat.
5. Add the cabbage to the butter and cook until tender.
6. Add the cabbage and the remaining 25g of butter to the pot with the tubers and mash.
7. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
8. Transfer the mash to the prepared baking dish and top with cheese.
9. Bake at 180°C (350°F), covered, for 30 minutes.
10. Uncover and continue baking for another 15 minutes.

Skirlie is a simple dish of suet-fried onions and oats. It's somewhat similar to white pudding (without the casing), but has proportionally more oats and less suet. I'm also used to white/mealie pudding being quite heavily spiced. And, while skirlie can be spiced, it isn't necessarily prepared that way. For this version, I kept it very simple and only added salt and pepper.

Skirlie

Slightly adapted from Scottish Scran

Ingredients

• 120g suet, grated/shredded or 60g suet + 60g butter
• 2 onions, chopped
• 340g steel-cut (pinhead) oats
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Heat the suet (or suet and butter) over medium heat.
2. Add the onions, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until onions are soft and beginning to brown (~10 minutes).
3. Add the oats, reduce heat to low, and cook, stirring frequently until oats have darkened and softened slightly (~20 minutes).
4. Serve with whiskey sauce and/or mashed potatoes.

I haven't really made shortbread before. I know the theory. But my mom makes such good shortbread at Christmas-time, that I usually just enjoy hers, so I've never gotten much practice making my own.

It's a simple enough concept: use a 3:2:1 ratio of flour:butter:sugar by mass. Cream the butter and sugar together, mix in the flour, bake until delicious! You can add flavourings in if you want. Shape them. Decorate them. But the foundation is that 3:2:1 ratio.

I believe they are traditionally made with soft flour (aka plain/standard flour in the UK/NZ respectively). Which is usually sold as "cake & pastry" flour¹ here.
Most North American recipes (including my mom's) seem to use all-purpose flour mixed with cornstarch (cornflour). This is something I often see with North American versions of European recipes. If your flour is hard, cutting it with cornstarch will effectively "soften" it. So, you can still have the effect of using a soft flour without having to go out and buy a specialty ingredient. Which suits me just fine. Except I actually have a surplus of soft flour right now, so I decided to just omit the cornstarch this time and make my shortbread with cake flour.

Armed with that knowledge (and my soft flour), I was hoping that this would be a nice, easy dessert to pull off. Sadly, it didn't quite work out.
The flavour was nice enough!, but it didn't unmould cleanly and my cookie came apart when I tried to turn it out. I think I probably should have given it five more minutes in the oven and then let it cool for a little longer before trying to unmould it. I may also take the advice of using ~25% rice flour next time as well. It seems that a lot of bakers swear by it. I just didn't want to make too many changes all at once on my first attempt.

Lavender Shortbread

Adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 125g sugar
• 1-2 Tbsp. fresh or dried lavender
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt (optional)
• 280g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour, sifted
• 90g rice flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and lightly oil a shortbread mould or 23cm (9") loose-bottom tart tin.
2. Cream the butter with the sugar.
3. Beat in the lavender and the salt (if using).
4. Add both types of flour and mix until fully combined.
5. Press the dough into the prepared mould.
6. Dock (prick) all over with a fork.
7. Bake at 180°C (350°F) on bottom oven rack for 50-60 minutes.
8. Allow to cool in mould/tin for at least 20 minutes.
9. Turn out onto cutting board.
10. Cut into wedges and allow to cool.

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¹ I see a lot of discussion online about how cake flour is different than pastry flour and pastry flour is actually closest to British "plain" flour and cake flour is even softer/lower-protein. But I've never actually seen that in the wild. We just get "all-purpose" and "cake & pastry". (Plus stuff like whole wheat, rye, spelt, rice, pasta/00, bread, etc.) But I have literally never seen "cake flour" as a separate and distinct thing from "pastry flour". Not saying that it doesn't exist! Just saying that it doesn't seem to exist here. So, for my purposes, I treat them as the same thing and roughly equivalent to what is sold as "plain" or "standard" flour in other parts of the world. ^Back

I picked up some smoked salmon on sale a little while back, tossed it in the freezer, and kind of forgot about it. I recently remembered it existed and figured I'd give this salmon tart a go. I was dubious about using cucumbers in a cooked pie, but it actually worked really well! I love the cream cheese in the custard.

Scottish Smoked Salmon and Cucumber Cream Cheese Tart

Slightly adapted from the Book of Old Tarts by Elizabeth Hoder

Ingredients

• 175g shortcrust pastry
• 1 English cucumber, peeled and chopped
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 250g smoked salmon, broken into large pieces
• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 150mL heavy (35%) cream
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill¹
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 tsp. peppercorns, ground

Directions

1. Line a shallow 25cm (10") tart tin² with the pastry and blind bake it³.
2. Toss cucumber with salt, place in colander, and place a plate and a heavy object on top. Set aside to drain for 30 minutes.
3. Pat cucumber dry and toss with salmon.
4. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
5. Blend cream cheese, eggs, egg yolk, cream, chives, dill, lemon zest, lemon juice, and pepper.
6. Place cucumber-salmon mixture in pie crust.
7. Pour the cheese mixutre over the filling.
8. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 30 minutes.
9. Serve warm or cold with vegetable side of your choice.

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¹ I didn't have any fresh dill, so I ended up using an extra 2 Tbsp. of chives + 1/2 tsp. of ground dill seeds. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for a 9" tart tin, but I've had issues with having too much filling for pies in this book before, so I decided to go up one tin size. ^Back
3 Line with parchment paper and fill with pie beans and bake at 400°F for 15 minutes, then remove paper and beans, prick with a fork, and brush with egg white, then return to oven and bake for another 5 minutes. ^Back