Steamed Fig Pudding - SHF#38

Zorra hosts this month's Sugar High Friday, "The Proof Is In the Pudding."

When I was a child, the Jewel Tea man, a peddlar, used to come to my home. One of the items my mother purchased from him in winter was fig bars. This is a recipe from the back of those boxes--which were yellow with red letters, called


Fig Pudding Enchanted
1 pound fig bars
1 1/4 cups hot milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten,
3/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts [I didn't use any today]

Put fig bars through food chopper, add hot milk, and mix well. Add sugar and beaten egg. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to fig mixture, followed by nuts. Mix ingredients well together. Fill greased molds 2/3 full, cover tightly, and steam for 2 1/2 hours. Serve hot with pudding sauce or cold with whipped cream. Serves 8.

You don't have a food chopper? Fear not--just chop the fig bars with a knife. Adding them to the hot milk will dissolve them very well.

I butter and sugar the mold--this keeps it from sticking--it also makes for a darker crust on the outside of the pudding.

Mom always served it with a tangy lemon sauce made from lemon juice, zest, corn starch and sugar.

See also my posts on baked mincemeat pudding and boiled pudding on my other blog, 18thC Cuisine