Clootie Dumpling – My Mom’s childhood memory

“This tastes like Clootie Dumpling” my mom utters as she tastes my carrot cake I made for my birthday. We all look on confused ‘what on earth is that? It’s a steamed pudding she remembers from her childhood. My mom can’t bake and doesn’t like being in the kitchen. When my Mom and my Aunty Joyce were growing up in Scotland, my Mom helped with the cleaning and my Aunty Joyce helped in the kitchen. My Mom preferred to clean, that is her strength to this day. You could eat off her floors and you’ll be hard pressed to find a spec of dust even behind her fridge. It costs very little to be clean she says and as I sit and write this, I am currently in my cycling gear from this morning. I got a bee in my bonnet and decided I had to research what this “clootie dumpling is all about. And I didn’t have time to shower. I had to get to it…the cloetie dumpling, not the shower 🧼🚿

Clootie dumpling is a traditional Scottish dessert, often served during festive occasions like Christmas and Hogmanay, the Scottish New Year. The name of the pudding or dumpling comes from the method used to cook the dumpling. The batter is wrapped in a cloth and boiled gently for about 3-4 hours. It is traditionally made with suet, the raw hard fat usually found around the loins or kidneys of beef, lamb or mutton. I used butter. I often refer to my 21st birthday present when I need a bit of background on a recipe. My complete set of 120 copies of Carriers Kitchen magazines from the 80’s never lets me down. I also like to cross reference to see the variations in different recipes and to include a modern take on how we eat today. You can get suet at the butchery, but for this recipe I would prefer to use butter. I didn’t have fresh milk so I used buttermilk; they are interchangeable. I used self-raising flour too as apposed to cake flour. I added zest from an orange and half a lemon too to make it my own.

When your family hasn’t handed down generations of recipes to you, create your own traditions and hand those down to your children or grandchildren. I think this will become one of these such recipes. I will always remember my Mom when I think of Clootie Dumpling and next year we will make it together. Whip up some Drambuie Whipped Butter in honour of my Granny Nan. Cheers to you Granny Nan I miss you very much and have the fondest of memories of you when you moved to South Africa after Grandpa Tom passed away. I thought that so very brave and courageous in your 60’s.

I was born in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 in 1968. We immigrated to South Africa when I was 2 and my older sister Lynne was 4. My Dad was 24 and my Mom was 22. We left behind my Grandparents and Great Granny and lots of other family too. It was a big bold step to leave a country with all that support and make a new start in a new country not knowing too many people. My Aunty Joyce and Uncle John had already made the move to South Africa so we did have them to stay with initially. My Mom spoke fondly of home and her memories often surfaced around Christmas time and New Year, two very important family festivities. She missed home a great deal around this time. I’d never really thought about it or understood it because I’d never experienced it like she had. A cold winter Christmas is very different to a warm summer Christmas. Having enjoyed 22 of them before leaving Scotland always made her nostalgic for home.

I thought I would try to make her the Clootie dumpling she had often spoken about over the years. She had never collected recipes because that’s just not her thing so I did a bit of research and settled on this one for her. I made a few tweaks and added Drambuie to my whipped Drambuie butter instead of the traditional whisky. Cheers to Granny Nan, Granny Peggy and my wee tiny great Granny Lizzy who lived to 99

A wee trip down memory lane and the start of a future tradition in my own home made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Here is a photo gallery of all my steps. It’s like painting by numbers.

5 from 1 vote

Clootie Dumpling – My Mom’s childhood memory

Ingredients

• 1 cloot Dish cloth boiled in hot water
• A deep pot of boiling water
• A side plate fitted in base of pot
• 230 g self-raising flour plus extra for dusting
• 100 g grated butter or suet
• 100 g brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• dash grated whole nutmeg ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
• Zest of one orange
• Zest of half a lemon
• 230 g cake fruit mix
• 200 mL buttermilk room temperature
• 4 x R2 and coins boiled and soaked in lemon juice my Granny Nan wrapped them in baking paper

Instructions

• Bring a pot of water to the boil and dip the dish towel in the water remove it and ring it out and place it in a jug to hold its shape – dust with flour. Keep the water boiling and place a side plate on the bottom so that the dumpling doesn't stick.
  1 cloot, A deep pot of boiling water, A side plate
• In a bowl add the flour and butter, sugar, spices, and bicarbonate of soda
  230 g self-raising flour plus extra for dusting, 100 g grated butter or suet, 100 g brown sugar, 1 teaspoon mixed spice, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• Cut the ingredients together with two knives
• Add the fruit and zest and the molasses
  1 tablespoon molasses, Zest of one orange, Zest of half a lemon, 230 g cake fruit mix
• Stir to ensure an even distribution of fruit throughout the flour
• Add the buttermilk and stir to a thick batter. Drop half the batter into the prepared dish cloth.
  200 mL buttermilk room temperature
• Add the R2 coins north, south, east and west in the batter. This is not traditional, but it was a memory of mine baked into Christmas pudding
  4 x R2 and coins boiled and soaked in lemon juice
• Spoon in the rest of the batter
• Draw up the dish towel leaving some room for the dumpling to expand whilst steaming. Tie with string
• Lower the dumpling cloot into the hot water. Place the lid on to keep the dumpling immersed in the water
• Weight the lid down with something heavy. I used my mortar and pestle – use a can of baked beans
• Gently simmer for 3 hours. Check the level of water every hour and top up as necessary. Preheat the oven just before the end of cooking time to 180°C.
• Remove dumpling from pot of water and drain well. Gently unwrap the dumpling, place on a baking tray and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 10 -15 minutes to dry out the dumpling and create its characteristic "skin". The colour will change and look much better than it does when you first remove the cloth.
• Serve warm with whipped Drambuie butter, custard or cream. Whisky is the traditional hard sauce used in the butter.

  Can also be fried in slices and served with bacon and eggs a traditional Scottish Breakfast Treat.

  Putting pennies in is not traditional, I was combining traditional Christmas pudding with clootie dumpling from my childhood memories

Notes

This is not a pretty pudding when it comes out of the cloot.  It was boiled and then placed near an open fire to dry it out and form is characteristic “skin”.  It was rural and frugal and predated our modern ovens of today. It has a deep cultural significance in Scotland and some recipes often included oatmeal or breadcrumbs.