Jam roly-poly

Makes 1 pudding in a medium-size loaf tin

300 g (10½ oz/2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour

130 g (4½ oz) shredded suet

1 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

juice of ½ lemon

200 ml (7 fl oz) water

2–3 tablespoons raspberry jam, or any other preserve

Custard sauce, to serve

Preheat the oven to 160°C (315°F).

Combine the flour, suet, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and mix together very well.

Add the lemon juice to the water and start adding it while stirring the mixture constantly. Soon it will look like very coarse breadcrumbs. Keep adding water until you can bring the mixture together with your hands into a stiff dough.

If it is too dry, you might need another splash of water, but I have tested it several times in different weather conditions and haven’t needed more water. The dough should not be sticky, make sure of that.

Roll the dough out gently to 1 cm (³/₈ inch) thickness on a generously floured work surface. Try to make it as rectangular as possible, then trim the edges.

Smear the jam over the dough, leaving some space at one end to crimp the edges together and close the roll. Starting from the other end, roll up the dough into a cylinder.

Carefully place the roll on a piece of greased baking paper with a pudding cloth, tea towel (dish towel) or foil underneath. Wrap the paper and cloth around the roll and tie both ends with kitchen string: first the baking paper, then the cloth.

Place the pudding in a loaf tin, then stand the tin on a trivet or inverted saucer in a large saucepan of boiling water. The pudding should not be covered with water. Put a lid on the saucepan and steam for 1 hour.

The suet pastry shouldn’t be too sweet as it will act like bread with jam. To serve, cut crossways in thick slices to expose the spiral of jam. A generous pouring of good homemade custard sauce is a must for an accompaniment.