Cranberries are a Fall favorite, so when I saw a recipe for Cranberry-Raisin Roll in a hundred-year-old cookbook I decided to give it a try.
Chopped cranberries and raisins were rolled into a baking powder dough and then steamed, which results in the roll having a different texture than if it had been baked. It is served with lemon sauce. The Cranberry-Raisin Roll was delightful and almost seemed elegant. It was soft, but slightly chewy, with the lovely tartness of cranberries that were slighted moderated by the sweetness of the raisins.
Here’s the original recipe:
The dough seemed too thick when I rolled it to a thickness of 1/2 inch, so I rolled it a little more until it was about 1/4-inch thick.
And, here is the recipe for Lemon Sauce:
I didn’t stir in boiling water when I made the Lemon Sauce. It didn’t seem necessary since the mixture was heated on the stove. I just used room temperature water.
Here are the recipes updated for modern cooks:
Cranberry Raisin Roll
1 cup cranberries
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 – 1 cup milk
Chop cranberries and raisins. (A blender or food processor works well to chop them.) Then put in a bowl and stir in the sugar. Set aside.
Put baking powder, sugar, salt, flour, and butter in a bowl. Add 3/4 cup milk, and mix using a fork until dough starts to cling together. If it is too dry, add additional milk. Turn onto a flour-prepared surface, and roll dough into an approximate 11-inch X 18-inch rectangle that is 1/4 inch thick. Evenly spread the cranberry and raisin mixture on the rolled dough to within 1/2 inch of the edges. Start at one of the narrower sides and roll, then put in a steamer over quickly boiling water and cover. Steam for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from steamer and serve with Lemon Sauce.
Lemon Sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon corn starch
dash salt
1 cup water
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Mix the sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in a saucepan. Stir in the water, and heat using medium heat until the mixture boils. Reduce heat and simmer until the mixture thickens. Stir in the butter, lemon juice, grated lemon rind, and nutmeg. Serve hot.
Looks interesting! I might try this to eat after a hearty and frosty walk.
It’s tasty, and would be a nice treat after a walk.
A perfect dessert for Thanksgiving for the minority who don’t like pumpkin pie!
It’s a nice cranberry dessert, and just unique enough to make it a fun addition to the Thanksgiving desserts.
Steaming is not that common of a cooking method in this part of the world…
Steamed veggies is about it.
I had similar thoughts when I saw this recipe. A hundred years ago steamed molded puddings (think Plum Pudding) were common in the U.S., but I’d never previously seen a recipe for a steamed dessert that wasn’t made using a mold.
This does sound very good. I steam a Christmas pudding every year, but it’s in a glass bowl. I don’t think I could handle anything without a container. You had the right equipment.
Similarly to you, until I made this recipe I’d always made steamed puddings in a bowl or mold. I use my steamer primarily to make Asian foods, but when I saw this recipe I thought that it might be fun to try using that steamer to make the Cranberry-Raisin Pudding.
Most interesting Sheryl! It looks quite tasty, and what a fun and unusual cooking method.
I had fun making this dessert. I enjoyed trying a cooking technique that was new to me. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect and was pleased with how the Cranberry-Raisin Roll turned out. It was quite tasty.
This does sound interesting, and certainly looks tasty.
It was yummy.
It looks very good with lots of fruity flavors.
It is a very nice dessert. My husband actually asked me tonight if two rolls would fit into the steamer so that it would last longer if I made it again.
😁 I’m with him!
An interesting way to cook a roll. I wonder if steaming was more popular 100 years ago?
Steamed puddings that were in a mold (think Plum Pudding) were very popular a hundred years ago. Often coffee cans were used as the mold. It was easy for cooks to steam the puddings for several hours back in the days when homes had wood or coal stoves that were hot all day. That said, this is the first time that I’ve ever seen a hundred-year-old recipe that called for steaming without the use of a mold. When I saw this recipe I actually wondered what the equipment looked like back then that would have been used to steam this type of roll.
I have seen recipes for Boston Brown Bread cooked using steam and it was cooked in a coffee can acting as a mold. I just wondered if more than puddings and bread were steamed. Is Boston Brown Bread really a type of steamed pudding?
Hmm. . . I’m not sure. I just did a search on whether Boston Brown Bread is a type of steamed pudding, and a post from the Behind the Recipe blog popped up. It says:
Boston brown bread is actually a kind of pudding – think English and plum rather than creamy and chocolate.
That does make sense to me.