Spotted Dick — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

A traditional steamed suet pudding studded with dried currants and lemon zest, served warm with a generous pour of hot custard.

Ingredients

225g self-raising flour
100g vegetable suet
75g caster sugar
150g dried currants
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange
1 large egg
120ml whole milk
Pinch of salt
Butter for greasing

Instructions

1 Mix flour, suet, sugar, currants, lemon zest, orange zest, and salt in a large bowl.
2 Beat egg with milk. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix to a soft, sticky dough.
3 Grease a 1-litre pudding basin. Spoon in the mixture, level the top.
4 Cover with a pleated sheet of baking paper and foil. Tie securely with string, making a handle.
5 Place in a steamer or on a trivet in a large pot of simmering water. Steam for 1 hour 30 min, topping up water as needed.
6 Turn out onto a warm plate. Serve immediately with hot custard.

Did You Know?

The "spotted" refers to the dried fruit dots, and "dick" likely derives from "dough" or the German "dick" meaning thick — despite the endless schoolboy jokes.