Steamed Molasses Raisin Pudding. A long time Newfoundland favourite that’s easy to make and is delicious served with our recipe for simple butterscotch sauce.
Steamed Molasses Raisin Pudding
This molasses raisin pudding recipe came about because someone asked me for a simple butterscotch sauce recipe. I set out to post the butterscotch sauce recipe and realized that I needed something to pour the sauce over for a photo.
Remembering that I had always meant to post a recipe for one of my favourite traditional steamed puddings, I set to work to whip up this molasses raisin pudding in just a few minutes.
The toughest part about this recipe is waiting for it to cook completely in the steamer. This one was cooked in Spouses Grandmothers steamer that we still use today. Don’t worry if you haven’t got a proper covered steamer, the recipe includes alternative suggestions like a plain Pyrex bowl.
Steamed Molasses Raisin Pudding a.k.a. Newfoundland Molasses Duff
In my family as in many other Newfoundland families we would have called this a “duff” although pudding is commonly used as well. This recipe, cooked in a steamer would have been more dessert oriented and often served with a sweet sauce like this one whereas others, like my Grandmother’s Figgy Duff, might have been served on the plate as a side dish with a Sunday roast dinner.
This old fashioned favourite is often made at the holidays but can be made year round as an old fashioned comfort food dessert.
You can find my recipe for The Best Butterscotch Sauce here. It goes amazingly well with this pudding.
Steamed Molasses Raisin Pudding
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- ½ cup molasses
- ½ cup butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon optional
- ½ cup milk
- 1 ½ cups raisins
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Prepare your steamer by greasing it well and lightly dusting with flour. You will need a 7 cup or larger steamer for this pudding. I sometimes use a heat-proof Pyrex bowl covered tightly in plastic wrap with an outside layer of aluminum foil. I’ve also used a bundt pan many times as a steamer. The only caution there is to make sure the hole in the center is completely plugged or the pudding will get wet. A wine cork of the right size, or some balled-up plastic wrap stuffed in the hole will work well for this purpose. Again, the top should be covered tightly with plastic wrap and then a layer of aluminum foil before placing it into the boiling water. The pot that you place your steamer in should be about 1½ times the size of the steamer and should have a metal trivet on the bottom. Do not let your pudding steamer touch the bottom of the pot. An old stoneware tea plate can make an adequate trivet if necessary. Bring about 2 inches of water to a slow simmer in the pot to get it ready.
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Cream the molasses and butter well then beat in the egg and vanilla extract. In a separate small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon (if you are using it).
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Fold the dry ingredients alternately with the milk into the creamed mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. As a general rule, I add the dry ingredients in 3 equal portions and the milk in 2 equal portions.
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When the last of the dry ingredients is almost incorporated fold in the raisins as well.
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Spread the batter evenly into the prepared steamer. Add the cover to the steamer (or a layer each of plastic wrap, then aluminum foil to stop water seeping in.)
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Place the steamer on the trivet at the bottom of the boiling water and place the lid on the pot.
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Steam the pudding for 2 hours. Test it to see if a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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Let the pudding rest in the steamer, on a wire rack, for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a serving plate.
You can substitute blueberries or partridgeberries in this recipe for the raisins. Dried or small fresh cranberries also work well, as do currents or even mixed dried fruit if you prefer.
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This was made for me in Labrador over 25 years ago and I have been looking for the recipe ever since. Thanks so much! Really excited to try this….
Made it today, the taste is Excellent. It was a little dry so I don’t know what i done wrong. But overall it was tasty with custard.
Thanks.
Gabe Hughes
I make this every year for Christmas but i boil it the pot with salt beef in a pudding bag.
I love your site! I made your steamed molasses pudding and it turned out quite dark compared to your photo. Did you use fancy molasses or cooking molasses? I will serve it next week with your sauce. I have it in the freezer for now. I have written a blog for almost 5 years and will share your site with my readers. I made this pudding because I am writing a piece about the Christmas pudding served in out Boomtown, a 1910 museum town, inside a building, here in Saskatoon. Thanks for sharing your recipes.
Generally i use fancy molasses in all sweets. Some people find the darker varieties too intense in flavour.
So excited to find this recipe! I ate it often when I was young but couldn’t remember the recipe. I always made it in the top of a double boiler. A great warm and filling dessert for cold winter days!
barry ,I made this pudding today and had some trouble with removing it from the steamer even though I thought I had greased and floured as the recipe said. thanks ,love the three books .Maxine
This recipe, in my mothers handwriting from the ’50s, was our Christmas Pudding. She made it with suet instead of butter. She was a Steeves from Albert County New Brunswick.
Hi there – My “Plum Pudding” is almost identical to yours except that the raisins are put into 1 cup of boiled water and then the butter is added to that to let cool/melt. My mother would make about a dozen of these and now I try to make them for the same family members. She would steam them 2 hours but over the years I’ve found that 1.5 is plenty. However, I wish that I had paid better attention to *when she made them. How far ahead would you make these before you would consider throwing them into the freezer? (I’d rather not freeze them at all). I’ve had them after 7 days and the flavor was lovely, but I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I’d make them 3 days ahead at most.