Is it okay to bake caramel pudding rather than steaming it?
I have a simple recipe for caramel pudding. It says to steam the pudding mix until it's set. It's a somewhat old recipe I've never tried before.
So, rather than steaming (which is very time consuming), can I use my oven instead? And what temperature and time would be preferable? Since the recipe only asks me to steam, I'm thinking of baking it for about 45 mins at 120°C.
Best Answer
I haven't seen your recipe, but from looking at others, steamed pudding takes on the order of a couple hours of steaming. Doing it in the oven won't be any faster or less boring than steaming it - it may even be slower, since heat transfer from steam is pretty efficient. 45 minutes at 120°C would probably leave it undercooked, and if you cook at a higher temperature, you'll be missing the point - steaming for a long time lets it cook slowly and more evenly. You could work out how to cook it hotter and faster, but it wouldn't be a steamed pudding anymore, it'd be a "normal" pudding.
If you want to do it in the oven, you should use a water bath to keep it from getting too hot - put the vessel with the pudding into a larger vessel, and add water to come most of the way up the sides of the pudding. Then you can increase the temperature of the oven, perhaps to 150-175°C, without overheating the pudding. But I doubt you'll be able to get the cooking time very much less than the original cooking time with steam without significantly changing the results.
Finally (thanks Elendil), steaming helps keep the pudding moist, and an oven even with a water bath is not a terribly humid environment, so it might still be drier than desired. Covering tightly, and possibly adding a tiny bit more liquid, might help with that.
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Can we bake pudding instead of steaming?
Steaming may seem like an odd way to cook a pudding but it's the perfect way to keep what is quite a dense dish moist. Steaming a pud is often associated with sweet puddings like Christmas pudding or chocolate pudding, however, you can cook savoury puddings, for example, steak and kidney pudding, in this way too.Can I bake instead of steam?
This is what you should know before you "bake" via steaming: 1 There will be no browning + less flavor. The biggest reason you want to bake a cake rather than steam it is because the dry heat of the oven promotes browning. When you steam a cake, you don't get the same browned edges as you would if it were baked.Why do you steam a pudding?
A steamed pudding is a mixture that is put into a heat-proof bowl, and cooked by steaming. It can be \u201csavoury\u201d (with meat in them) or sweet, for dessert. The steam regulates the heat at which the pudding cooks.How do you know when creme caramel is cooked?
To test, insert a knife into the centre. If it comes out clean or with just a little softly-set custard clinging to it, it's ready. Be aware that the custards will continue to cook once removed from the oven so be careful not to overcook them.I made that LEFTOVER MILK CARAMEL PUDDING // RECIPE REVIEW //
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