Roly-poly puddings are pretty much classic, old-fashioned British pudding fare, originally being made from suet and not butter and cooked in a floured cloth, though today they are often baked. Spotted Dick, strictly speaking, has the currants or raisins in the centre of the dough, while Spotted Dog has them throughout! Being a steamed pudding, it will cook well in the slow cooker.

Ingredients

• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1 cup fresh white breadcrumbs
• 1-1¼ cups currants
• ¼ cup caster sugar
• 75 grams butter, chilled and grated
• grated rind 1 lemon
• ½ cup milk
• Vanilla custard
• 2 tablespoons cornflour
• ½ cup cream
• ¼ cup caster sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence or paste
• 2 cups milk

Method

1. Turn the slow cooker on to low to pre-warm while gathering and preparing the ingredients. Place a plate long enough to sit in the base of the slow cooker and pour in 2 cups of boiling water. Lightly grease a 45-cm length of baking paper and sit greased-side up on top of a longer piece - about 50-cm in length - of foil.
2. Into a wide bowl, stir together the flour, breadcrumbs, currants, sugar, butter and lemon rind and make a well in the centre.
3. Stir in the milk to make a moist batter-like dough.
4. Turn the dough onto the centre of the baking paper and shape into a long sausage, about 40cm long. Bring the edges of the baking paper together and fold loosely to seal, leaving plenty of room for the pudidng to expand when cooking. Repeat with the foil.
5. Sit the parcel, folded side uppermost, on top of the plate in the pre-warmed slow cooker. The water should come about halfway up the sides of the pudding. Add more boiling water from the kettle if required, but do not submerge the pudding in water.
6. Cook on high for 2-2½ hours. To check if the pudding is cooked, just pull open the foil and baking paper a little and check that the pudding is cooked and does not have any raw areas of dough left. If there are raw areas, re-seal and continue to cook for a further 30 minutes.
7. Serve the spotted dog with a heavenly sized serving of vanilla custard.
8. Vanilla custard
9. In a saucepan stir together the cornflour, cream, caster sugar, egg yolks and vanilla essence until smooth. Gradually add the milk and then cook, stirring regularly over a medium heat until the custard is smooth and thick. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.