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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.

Blueberry Duff - a traditional Newfoundland steamed pudding.

Blueberry Duff – a traditional Newfoundland steamed pudding.

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”.

Blueberries spilling onto a tsble top from a white plastic bucket.

The first blueberries of the season, picked this weekend by my 80 year old dad.

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.

Newfoundland Blueberry Duff and Figgy Duf

Newfoundland Blueberry Duff and Figgy Duff

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.

Top Ten Newfoundland Recipes photo collage for Pinterest

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 - a traditional Newfoundland steamed pudding.

Blueberry Duff – a traditional Newfoundland steamed pudding.

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Blueberry Duff - a traditional Newfoundland steamed pudding.
Yield: 8 or more servings

Blueberry Duff

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 to 1 1/2 cup blueberries
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • ¾ cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

  1. Blend together the flour, sugar and baking powder.
  2. Add the blueberries and toss to distribute them in the flour mixture.
  3. Add the melted butter, milk and vanilla extract all at once.
  4. Mix all together with a wooden spoon just until a soft dough is formed.
  5. 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.
  6. Boil gently for approximately one and a half hours to 2 hours.
  7. Remove from steamer or pudding bag, slice and serve.

Nutrition Information

Yield

8

Serving Size

1 grams

Amount 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.

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Joanne Thistle

Saturday 22nd of August 2020

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

Ernest

Saturday 13th of October 2018

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

Michelle

Sunday 1st of April 2018

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.

Barry C. Parsons

Tuesday 3rd of April 2018

I've never done that. You must use a very low heat, do you?

Joyce

Monday 12th of March 2018

Would it be okay to add an egg?

Barry C. Parsons

Monday 12th of March 2018

I'm not sure why. I've never done it. You are also throwing the dry ingredients out of balance.

Ann

Wednesday 6th of September 2017

Can this pudding be baked In The oven?

Barry C. Parsons

Saturday 9th of September 2017

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/

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