Bob Dylan's Favorite Vintage Dessert Dates Back Several Centuries

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Bob Dylan is a legendary singer and songwriter who inspired a generation through his honest storytelling, folk rock style, and signature gravelly voice. While his music is iconic, he's been historically reserved about giving one-on-one interviews. This is partially what made his "Theme Time Radio Hour" on XM Satellite Radio so intriguing to his fans. Dylan would take calls, comment on music, and recite poetry. During a Christmas and New Years-themed show, Dylan talked about one of his favorite holiday desserts, figgy pudding, a classic Christmas dessert in Britain that goes back centuries.

Historians have uncovered records of plum pudding going back to the early 1400s, when "plum" represented a wide range of dried fruits, including raisins, currants, and indeed, plums. The fruit was incorporated into a steamed, savory cake-like dish that also contained meats, grains, and spices. Plum puddings gradually became more sweet and less savory. By the 19th century, common plum or Christmas puddings consisted of brown sugar, suet, candied citrus peel, eggs, spices, breadcrumbs, an alcohol based sauce that was doused over the pudding and ignited, and dried fruit, which would have included dried figs, creating the concept of "figgy pudding." 

It's unclear when Dylan first tried this sweet made famous in song ("We Wish You A Merry Christmas") and literature. (It features prominently in the Charles Dickens classic, "A Christmas Carol.") Dylan is so taken by the dish, he has his own recipe, which he happily shared with listeners.

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During the 2006 "Theme Time Radio Hour" broadcast, Bob Dylan explains that he'd received several inquiries about his figgy pudding. The ingredients consist of flour, salt, breadcrumbs, shredded suet (an old-school fat found around the kidneys of animals that many Americans stopped using), mixed spices, baking powder, brown sugar, dried figs, lemon zest and juice, milk, and eggs. Once the batter is mixed, it's placed in a pudding mold and steamed for three hours.

Dylan likes serving his figgy pudding with heated golden syrup, which has a different flavor than corn syrup, and creamy custard. He also says that some eat their pudding with vanilla ice cream, which he admits he doesn't understand at all. (If he spoke with Ina Garten, she'd probably explain that her shortcut cake sauce is simply melted vanilla ice cream.) Dylan's recipe doesn't call for alcohol (he stopped drinking in 1994), but many recipes do, either incorporating it into the pudding itself, or by flambéing it upon serving. 

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