Steamed Cranberry Pudding

Steamed Cranberry Pudding sounds "not so good," doesn't it? Steamed pudding? With cranberries? And just LOOK at it, it looks like, gasp, FRUITCAKE:

Many years ago, a lovely friend of ours, Mary Ellen St. John, of Wenatchee, Washington, made this dessert. My mom pushed her slice around on her plate for several minutes, trying to get the courage to taste it. She had said something like, "Icky, this looks icky."

After taking a deep breath, Mom took a bite. And then another. Once finished, she asked Mary Ellen for another slice. And she said, "No, make your own." At least she did give us the recipe and it's now a staple in our holiday baking. We had it for our Christmas Dinner Dessert this year for the umpteenth time.

That "icky" response is generally the one we get when we make this and people see it for the first time. It does look like fruitcake, which is not the favorite of a majority of people, if my unscientific poll is even close to the truth.

But one taste of this usually means that people are asking for more. They also tend to lick their plate when they think no one is looking.

The recipe is incredibly easy. And I hope you let me know if you liked it.

Cranberry Pudding

Ann Morrow from Mary Ellen St. John

PUDDING:

1 1/3  Flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup hot water

½ cup molasses (light or dark, whatever you have on hand)

2 cups whole RAW cranberries

SIFT flour and soda together

ADD hot water and molasses

ADD RAW cranberries

POUR (batter is REALLY stiff) into one greased LOAF pan

SEAL with tinfoil @@@

BAKE at 350 for 1 hour

SAUCE:

½ cup butter

1 tsp vanilla or other flavoring (rum, or ?)

½ cup evaporated milk

1/3 cup sugar

HEAT all just until butter melts---***DO NOT BOIL!!!

SLICE pudding (warm or cold) into half inch thick slabs and spoon sauce over it.

REALLY YUMMY!!!! 

Two pieces is the normal serving ;)

@@@This is very important. The pudding needs the foil to keep the STEAM in. One of my aunts made it and didn't do this step. She told my mom that it turned out horribly.

***This is another important step. Boiling makes the sauce totally weird. Just heat it until the butter is melted, that's all. 






My hubs will eat a slice, but since there's no chocolate, he'd rather pass. But I'm giving this a FIVE CHERRY Rating anyway, because the rest of is like it enough for him: