Sitting by the peat-burning range at my aunt’s home, I watch attentively as luggage of flour, packets of suet, jars of dried fruits and tins of black treacle are pulled from the kitchen cabinets.
At 93, my Aunt Bellag remains to be well-known across the island for her Clootie Dumpling or ‘Duff’ as we are saying in Gaelic. She provides me a wink as she provides a tablespoon of her secret ingredient (which I lastly persuaded her to inform me for this recipe, it’s a tablespoon of marmalade!) earlier than it’s wrapped in a floured muslin material and sat in a pan of simmering water on the range.
This conventional steamed fruit cake with its distinctive pores and skin is as synonymous with Scotland’s Hebridean islands as the long-lasting 5,000 12 months outdated Callanish Stones and our miles and miles of machair coated, sandy seashores. And whereas many folks go to our islands for the dramatic scenic magnificence, wild heather strewn mountains and Viking heritage, many extra at the moment are realising the Outer Hebrides has a few of the easiest seafood, smokehouses, distilleries and conventional baking. With artisan, unbiased producers showcasing the perfect that our Atlantic larder has to supply.
And as my aunt brings me a cup of tea, tales are shared and the hearty slice of duff is eaten, my aunt says in Gaelic ‘Is olc an còcaire nach imlich a mheur’, which roughly interprets as ‘It’s a poor cook dinner who doesn’t lick their fingers’. By no means a more true phrase was stated.
The Clootie Dumpling Recipe
Serve this heat with custard, or the subsequent morning fried with bacon and sausages as a part of a Hebridean breakfast!
Components
- 225g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon blended spice
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
- 175g caster sugar
- 100g suet
- 100g sultanas
- 75g currants
- 75g raisins
- 1 apple, grated
- 150ml buttermilk
- 1 egg, crushed
- 1 heaped tablespoon black treacle
- 1 heaped tablespoon marmalade
Methodology
- The whole lot goes in a single bowl! Sieve your flour and add your baking soda, blended spice, cinnamon and salt right into a bowl and mix.
- Add your sugar, suet, dried fruit and grated apple to the bowl and stir collectively.
- Pour in your buttermilk, crushed egg, black treacle and marmalade. Mix collectively.
- Place a chunk of muslin material or a cotton dishtowel (the cloot) in boiling water, and as soon as cool sufficient to the touch, wring the fabric out. Place the fabric in your work floor and sprinkle liberally with flour.
- Place the combination into the centre of the cloot. Collect up the perimeters of the fabric and with a size of string, tie up (not too tightly), leaving some room for the dumpling to develop.
- In a big pan of boiling water (deep sufficient to cowl the dumpling), place a saucer the other way up. Place the dumpling onto the saucer, cowl with a lid and simmer for 3 hours. Don’t let the water evaporate; chances are you’ll have to high it up.
- Take out from the pan and punctiliously take away the cloot from the dumpling. Strive to not take off any of the ‘pores and skin’. In a heat kitchen, let it relaxation for half-hour earlier than slicing.
In regards to the Hebridean Baker
Impressed by household recipes and conventional Scottish bakes, Coinneach launched the Hebridean Baker in 2020. 20 million video views (and counting!) later, Coinneach has motivated his followers world wide to bake, forage, study Gaelic, have a dram or two and dream of visiting the Scottish islands.
Born and raised on the Isle of Lewis, he shares the Hebridean Hygge way of life in his debut cookbook, The Hebridean Baker: Recipes & Wee Tales from the Scottish Islands. With healthful, conventional recipes, gorgeous images and a beneficiant sprinkling of tales of island life and tradition, The Hebridean Baker gives a real style of the Outer Hebrides.
You’ll be able to buy the e-book now from stor, the official Historic Scotland on-line store.
