Ingredients — 6oz self raising flour, 6oz brown breadcrumbs, 8 oz suet, 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, I teaspoon ginger, 4 oz currents, 6 oz. sultanas, 4 oz. soft dark brown sugar, 2 tablespoons syrup approx. 1½ cups milk [or Milk Stout].
Method — Place your clout in boiling water. Mix all the ingredients together with the milk to make a fairly soft consistency. Make sure everything is mixed well.
Take the cloot out of the water and wring and they lay it out flat and dredge well with flour. Smooth the flour over the cloot with your hands to get an even spread.
Place the mixture on the cloot, draw it together evenly, leaving room for expansion, and tie the cloot with string.
Put a plate in the bottom of the pot and the cloot and mixture on top of that. Use a large pot, big enough to allow covering the cloot with water. That way there will be no need to top up through the cooking.
Simmer the dumpling for two to three hours. Remove from the pot and put it in a colander in the sink.
Untie the string and gently pull the corners of the cloot apart.
Put a plate over the dumpling in the colander and whip it over.
Carefully peel the cloot away from one corner and you should have a dumpling to match our champion’s....
(Mrs Baird doesn't believe in drying off a dumpling, she reckons that makes it hard.)
