Blueberry Duff. A traditional Newfoundland favourite!
Blueberry duff. A steamed pudding here in Newfoundland, sometimes served with dinner, sometimes as a dessert with blueberry or rum sauce.
Originally published October 2008.
A blueberry duff is a type of steamed pudding. It is most often, as shown here, boiled in a cotton bag in the same pot with the vegetables and salt beef.
An essential for a traditional Newfoundland Jigg's Dinner. It goes by several different names; my friend Ellen, from St. Vincent's, for example calls it "Lad in da Bag".
Traditions vary across the province with some people who only know this dish as a dessert course, being served with a brown sugar or rum sauce; others know it as a side dish served with the other components of a Jigg's dinner.
This is a very close cousin to the Figgy Duff, which doesn't really have figs at all. You can read a lot more about this sort of pudding/duff in that post.
For those who have been asking, there is an alternative to the pudding bag. You can get a pudding steamer on Amazon.
Looking for more Newfoundland-inspired cuisine?
If you'd like to see more traditionally inspired recipes from our province, please check out this collection on some of our Most Popular Newfoundland recipes.
Like this Blueberry Duff recipe?
You'll probably enjoy browsing the photo links to our other Newfoundland inspired recipes in our Newfoundland Food Category and if you are a seafood lover there are plenty of great ideas in our Fish & Seafood Recipes Category.
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Blueberry Duff
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 to 1 ½ cup blueberries
- ⅓ cup melted butter
- ¾ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Blend together the flour, sugar and baking powder.
- Add the blueberries and toss to distribute them in the flour mixture.
- Add the melted butter, milk and vanilla extract all at once.
- Mix all together with a wooden spoon just until a soft dough is formed.
- Put dough into a pudding steamer or a wet heavy cotton pudding bag, tying the bag with a piece of butcher string but leaving about an inch of slack at the top to allow the pudding to expand.
- Boil gently for approximately one and a half hours to 2 hours.
- Remove from steamer or pudding bag, slice and serve.
Nutrition Information
Yield
8Serving Size
1 gramsAmount Per Serving Calories 312Total Fat 9gSaturated Fat 5gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 22mgSodium 195mgCarbohydrates 54gFiber 2gSugar 22gProtein 5g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
How do u make the rum sauce or whatever sauce u would make to go with this recipe
Search for rum sauce here.
Brown Sugar Rum Sauce
1 ½ cups Brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
mix flour & sugar and
2 cups of water
¼ cup rum (not mandatory)
3 Tbsp real butter
Bring to a boil on med heat until thickened to your liking.
Sugar can be cut back depending on how sweet you want it.
I mix the sugar & flour as it helps to keep it lump free.
What is a pudding steamer? And wheee do I get one?
Something like this.
Can this pudding be baked In The oven?
No, it would be incredibly dry. There is a cake version (Blueberry Snack Cake) we sometimes called Baked Blueberry Duff. Everyone loves that one. https://www.rockrecipes.com/blueberry-snack-cake/
Would it be okay to add an egg?
I'm not sure why. I've never done it. You are also throwing the dry ingredients out of balance.
Okay. Thanks. You’re the pro———I’ll follow your instructions!!😊😊
I have often greased a small casserole dish and cooked it in the oven covered in foil. Just keep an eye to it so it doesn't dry out too much but also cooks through.
I've never done that. You must use a very low heat, do you?
You can also cook it in tin foil just lay it in the pot
Yes you can cook in pressure cooker put it in with your beef.
I also love the spice raisin pudding
Thanks for the recipe. I have lost my mom’s from years ago! We used to have this as dessert and my mom used to cook up a batch of Birdseye Custard and served to warm over the duff. Oh it was some good! I am from St John’s but living in Alberta
Hi Barry, have you tried steaming in the instant pot? Curious how long it might take
We have never used an instant pot so really wouldn't be able to advise.