Lenten Carrot Pudding

I just want to establish that no one in my family, or really anyone I know, ever uttered the phrase, "What's for pud." I think that's something people say because they think it has some sort of nostalgic charm, which it might, but not among people I know. Anyway, here we are, the first dessert of Lent.

Over the years, I've built up an archive of Lenten cakes made without butter, eggs or milk. I'll try to get those posted in one place tomorrow for Friday Cake Blogging, but this year, I think I might branch out a bit.

There are so many vegan sites that have cake recipes suitable for Lent that it is almost redundant to do them here. Unless I find something particularly wonderful, I'm going to experiment with Depression-era baking that was done without eggs and butter. Many of those recipes are steamed puddings.

Now I have to be honest here, I'm not a huge fan of spice cake, or carrot cake, and that's essentially what this is-in a pudding. Still, if you're really craving something dessert-like and you're keeping to the traditional Lenten prohibitions, then this might satisfy...something. It isn't terribly sweet, and it isn't rich at all. I guess it might satisfy a craving for carrots and raisins. Or carrot salad, but at least that has some fat in it. Pineapple might have helped this along a bit. You can make hard sauce out of margarine, I guess. That might make it more dessert-like. Funny, because as a somewhat sweet side dish with something like pot roast, I could see this being really perfect.

Get out your 1/3 cup measures because this recipe seems to be a series of ingredients in thirds.

From the Herald tribune Home Institute Cookbook, 1937

You Will Need:

2/3 cup AP flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup dried currants
2/3 cup raisins
2/3 cup grated raw potato
2/3 cup grated raw carrots
1/3 cup "milk" (use either rice, soy or your favourite non-dairy drink)

Sift together dry ingredients. Add fruit and toss well. Add carrots, potatoes and milk and mix well. Pour into a greased 1 quart mould filled 2/3 full. Cover top with parchment and seal securely with a string (if you don't have a self-sealing mould). Cover and steam 2 1/2 hours. Check water once in a while as it will probably need replenishing.