Since they were looking for something distinctly Scottish, but with a Christmassy feel, I thought back to my great-grandmother's fantastic Clootie Dumpling - a Scots classic if ever there was one. While it was a year round treat during my childhood, my Nana always came up with variations for special occasions, so I hope she would approve of my festive version of her signature dish.
Ingredients (Makes a large pudding for around 10 people)
175g Plain Flour
115 oz Self-Raising Flour
30g Cake Crumbs (or bread crumbs if you don't have some old cake lying around)
90g Vegetarian Suet
60g Fine Raw Cane Sugar
115g each of Currants & Sultanas
60g each of Raisins, Dried Cranberries & Mixed Peel
1 DSp each of Treacle, Golden Syrup & Medium Cut Marmalade
1 oz Sunflower Spread, melted
1 Lge Egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 TeSp each of Ground Ginger, Mixed Spice, Cinnamon & Nutmeg
1 TeSp each of Ground Cloves & Mace
275ml Buttermilk
1 TeSp Bicarbonate of Soda
25ml Whisky (or brandy if you prefer)
Pinch of Salt
Plain Flour for sprinkling on cloth
Coin wrapped in greaseproof paper
Method
First put a large pan of water on to boil with a plate, or ideally, a steamer rose in the bottom so the pudding can't sit on the floor of the pan. Then submerge your 'cloot' or pudding cloth - a square of muslin around 2 feet square - in a bowl of boiling water to sterilise it.
Pop your bicarbonate of soda into a cup, mix with a splash of buttermilk and set to one side.
Sift your flour into a large bowl then add crumbs, sugar, spices, suet, salt & dried fruit. Mix together so the fruit has no clumps and the spices & flour are well mixed. Now add your margarine, egg, treacle, syrup, marmalade, whisky and the bicarbonate of soda/buttermilk mix. Begin to stir, adding the remainder of the buttermilk (and your coin for luck) until you have as smooth a batter as you can manage with a mixture containing more than a pound of fruit!
Remove you cloot from the boiling water, wring it out & lay it on a flat surface. Sprinkle all over with flour, rub gently in to the cloth then shake off any excess. Now put your cloth over a large bowl and spoon the mixture into the centre of cloot. Bring up the edges of the cloth - keeping the pleats as neat and shallow as possible - then, leaving enough space for the dumpling to swell, tie the top tightly with string.
Place the dumpling into the water, bring it back to the boil, cover & allow to simmer for 3 1/2 hours, topping up with boiling water if necessary.
At the end of the cooking time, remove the dumpling from the hot water & plunge into cold water for around 5 seconds. Then place it in a colander, untie the cloot and open it up just enough so a serving plate can be placed on top. Turn the whole thing over and remove the rest of the cloot. Your dumpling is now complete, but is naked as a newborn & needs to be covered with a damp teatowel and left overnight to allow the skin to firm up.
To Serve
Once the skin has firmed up, the whole dumpling can be warmed gently in the oven & served with brandy butter or custard a la Christmas pudding. Alternatively only warm half then slice the other half very thinly so it can be fried and served with bacon & eggs for the ultimate Boxing Day breakfast.
