# Flour in (British) steamed puddings



## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

I have never understood why both self-rising flour and a healthy dose of baking powder is used in many steamed pudding recipes.  Is self-rising flour really necessary?


----------



## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

... or will using just plain flour still result in a decent steamed pudding?


----------



## jock (Dec 4, 2001)

There's all kinds of steamed puddings as you know Brian. Which one are you talking about particularly? I would imagine that with no leavening it would be pretty dense. Ergo, if you use all purpose (plain) flour you would need to add an extra dose of baking powder.


----------



## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

The particular stemaed pudding that raised the question is a orange marmalade stemed pudding recipe by Gordon Ransey.  It is intended to be a "sponge" pudding, not the really dense type like a Christmas or Plum pudding.   My experience with the Christmas/Plum puddings is that the use of suet really helps lighten up what might otherwise be as dense as a brick.

I've seen this type of jam pudding recipe in various places on the internet and it often calls for both self-rising flour and baking powder.

Since asking the question I tried the recipe and used regular pastry flour instead of self-rising, and 2 tsp baking powder per the recipe.  The result was indeed sponge-y yet still moist and slightly dense.  It seems to me that the self-rising flour in a sponge-type steamed pudding that also has baking powder is completely unnecessary.


----------

