Bon Appétit (November 2009) In selecting recipes to try out prior to Thanksgiving, we definitely wanted to choose some dishes that were outside our comfort zone. These could be either things we wouldn't typically make for a Thanksgiving meal, like an Oyster Casserole, or dishes that seemed challenging. Well, we met our match with this recipe for Steamed Persimmon Pudding. Truly, this may be a recipe worthy of MacGyver.
Granted, many of the problems here are self-imposed. We wanted to try this dish, but were intent on not buying new kitchen equipment in order to do so. We're cramped for space in our kitchen and we're trying to only buy true essentials when it comes to new kitchen gear.
Our problems began with the first direction:
- Butter and flour one 8-cup metal pudding mold with center tube and lid.
Well, we don't have one. Do you? We actually called a few stores to see if they had some in stock, you know, just in case we wanted to purchase one. No one had anything that fit this description.
So we went rifling through our cabinets in search of something that might work. We decided on a bundt pan because it's remotely the shape of the pudding pictured in the magazine.
So then we came to dilemma number two:
Place round cake rack in bottom of deep pot large enough to hold pudding mold.
We
don't own cake racks. We do have baking racks, but there's no
way they'd fit in our stock pot. So we used a steamer basket instead and placed it in our largest stock pot. And the budnt fit perfectly inside the stock pot. So we mixed up the cake, and then this:
Spoon batter into pudding mold; cover with lid.
Our bundt doesn't have a lid. We contemplated using a plate as the lid, but then realized that even if a plate would fit into our stock pot, we wouldn't be able to get it back out without overturning the whole thing. So we used aluminum foil instead.
We followed the rest of the rest of the recipe to the letter, nervous about whether or not it would turn out as it steamed in boiling water for two hours. Then we came to this:
Remove mold from pot.
Easy enough, right? Uh, no. There was no room to grab onto the sides of the bundt pan inside the stock pot, and we found it nearly impossible to reach into the center of the bundt to grab the pan and lift it out due to the heat. And believe us when we say we have the blisters to show that we tried. We used potholders, tongs, and spoons -- nothing worked. We wondered if we should we leave it in the pan until the water cooled enough that we could grab it with our hands? It had already steamed for two hours and we were concerned about letting it stay in the pan much longer. So we had an idea: We anxiously lifted off the foil to see what we had wrought, and were pleasantly surprised to find that it was beautiful. Honestly, we were just happy that it was intact. This was made a few days prior to our serving it. We made the creme anglaise at the same time and stashed it in our fridge for a few days. On the day we planned to eat the pudding, we made and applied the apricot glaze that morning, which is really just an apricot jam that's been thinned. Rather than pour the glaze onto the plate, as pictured in Bon Appétit (below), we served the glaze on the side, allowing guests to add as little or as much as they wanted. In all honesty, we were really proud of this dessert. It was so different and beautiful and the cinnamon anglaise was delicious on top of the sweet persimmon pudding. Would we make it again? Probably not, but we're really glad we did it this once.
That's right -- we punched a hole in the aluminum foil and grabbed the inner edge of the bundt pan with pliers, lifting it out to safety.
After it had cooled, we slide a knife around the edges, and inverted it. The surface of the pudding was slightly discolored in places from where it hadn't quite cooked evenly, but it was firm all over.
More Thanksgiving Suggestions From The Bitten Word >>
Steamed Persimmon Pudding with Cinnamon Crème Anglaise
Bon Appétit (November 2009)
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(This photo: Bon Appétit)
8 servings
Ingredients
• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup fresh persimmon pulp (from about 2 large Hachiya persimmons, pureed in processor)
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup apricot preserves
• Cinnamon Crème Anglaise (click for recipe)
special equipment
• 1 cup 8-cup metal pudding mold
Preparation
• Butter and flour one 8-cup metal pudding mold with center tube and lid, then generously spray mold with nonstick spray. Butter, flour, and spray lid. Bring large kettle of water to boil. Place round cake rack in bottom of deep pot large enough to hold pudding mold. Whisk 1 1/2 cups flour and next 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and beat until blended. Beat in persimmon puree and lemon juice.
• Spoon batter into pudding mold; cover with lid. Place pudding mold on cake rack in pot. Add enough boiling water to come halfway up sides of mold. Return water to boil, cover pot, then reduce heat and simmer until top of pudding feels firm to touch and tester inserted near center comes out clean, adding more simmering water to pot to maintain water level, about 2 hours.
• Remove mold from pot. Uncover pudding; let cool. Invert onto plate. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover; let stand at room temperature.
• Bring apricot preserves to simmer in small saucepan. Strain through fine strainer set over bowl. Using pastry brush, spread preserves over outside of pudding. DO AHEAD Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature.
• Serve pudding at room temperature with Cinnamon Crème Anglaise.
