Childhood favourites

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How often did we fantasise about the food while reading Enid Blyton’s descriptions of English high tea and dinners when we were kids. Images of buttered scones and jam roly-polys would dance in front of our eyes as kids, though few of us had any idea what they were and were only sure that they would be delicious.
This week we take a look at two recipes that we have always fantasised about as kids.

Jam Roly-Poly

You will never find this dessert on the menu of any restaurant, but that doesn’t mean that that it’s not delicious, only homely.

Ingredients
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
100 gm frozen butter, grated
¾ cup strawberry jam
Custard, to serve

Method
Preheat the oven to 200o C. Sift the flour with the baking powder in a large bowl and stir in the butter. Make a well in the centre of the mixture and add half cup water and mix till the mixture starts coming together.
Make a ball out of the sticky dough and place it on a lightly floured sheet of baking paper. Roll the dough out into a rough rectangle (26x20 cm) between two sheets of baking paper.
Now spread the jam on the dough leaving a 2 cm gap on the shorter sides. Roll up the dough starting from the shorter side. Place the roll, along with the baking paper on a baking tray and roll the baking paper up to cover the dough, twisting the sides.
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Allow the roly poly to cool down completely before slicing it. Serve with custard.
Note: Roly-poly is traditionally steamed. So if you have a large enough steamer you can use that.
Steamed Fruit Pudding
This is another British favourite immortalised by boarding schools the world over.

Ingredients
150 gm butter at room temperature, chopped
¾ cup caster sugar
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 eggs
2 cups flour sifted with 1 tsp baking powder
½ cup milk
½ cup raisins
½ cup currants
Custard to serve

Method
Grease and flour a large pudding basin. Cut a sheet of foil and a sheet of baking paper about 40-cm long.
Beat the butter, sugar and citrus zest with an electric beater until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time while beating. Using a metal spoon, fold in half the flour and then all the milk, then the remaining flour. Fold in the dried fruit.
Put the mixture into the pudding basin and cover it with the baking paper and foil (paper side down) and tie it securely around the rim so that it is sealed.
In a large deep pan, place a saucer upside down and put the pudding bowl on it. Now pour boiling water in the pan so that the water comes two-thirds up the pudding bowl. Cover the lid of the pan and cook over medium heat for around 2 hours, topping up with boiling water if needed. Turn off the heat.
Once it has cooled down, carefully remove the pudding bowl from the pan and take off the foil. Place a serving plate on the bowl and turn the bowl over so that the pudding comes on the plate. Serve hot with custard.