Steamed Cranberry Pudding-A New Year's Eve Tradition

As long as I can remember, we never did much to celebrate New Year's Eve.  That changed though a few years back when I was volunteering to be on-duty from my home for the Emergency Squad.   My husband and I decided that we would ask our neighbors to come over and spend the evening at our home playing games. 

My neighbors came over bringing somewhat of a New Year's Eve tradition for them, steamed cranberry pudding with hard sauce. I had never tried or even heard of anything like that.  As we removed it from the mold, the steam wafted towards us and it smelled delectable! That first bite was wonderful. Tart cranberries enveloped in moist molasses flavored cake, dripping with a buttery hard sauce.

Since that New Year's Eve night, years ago, steamed cranberry pudding has become our New Year's Eve tradition.  This year we ended up celebrating New Year's Eve a  week and a half late. But we still had our cranberry pudding and an evening of games. I asked my neighbor if I could share her recipe. You will find it below. Enjoy!

Steamed Cranberry Pudding with Hard Sauce

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 cup light molasses

1/3 cup hot water

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups cranberries, washed and drained

Mix together and pour into a greased mold and steam for 1 hour over simmering water on stove top, making sure that the pot is tightly covered. Remove from mold onto serving tray and serve warm with hard sauce.

Hard Sauce

1 cup half and half

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

Heat cream, butter, sugar and salt to a boil. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Serve warm over warm pudding.

Variation: Use eggnog instead of half and half and replace vanilla with rum flavoring.