Michaelmas Pudding

I love how seasons change. The change always gives something to wait for: the crisp autumn weather, the wind blowing the colourful leaves in circular patterns, apples... until nice autumn days turn into dark, muddy and cold November (not something I look forward to). But then again November will turn into December and eventually all Christmas anticipation will take the edge of that horrible season. Maybe that's why I love traditions, too: how some days are celebrated in same kind of manner each year and every year these certain times bring that nostalgia of previous years.

And so this time the annual calendar will turn to Michaelmas. It was an episode of Lark Rise to Candleford where Michaelmas Pudding was mentioned in a side remark. And so I got interested in Michaelmas through food (what else would you expect?). Before that I had hardly paid any attention to this another church-ly feast. The traditional day of Michaelmas (Mikkelinpäivä in Finnish) will be tomorrow, but since 1772 in Finland (and Sweden) it's been celebrated on Sunday either on or following 29th September. This year the actual day will be 5th October.

I'm not sure if there are any specific foods in Finland for Michaelmas, so I went for the easy route and searched what that Michaelmas Pudding was. After some googling I bumped into this. Besides the recipe for Michaelmas Dumplings, you'll find there interesting facts about Michaelmas, Devil Spits Day and so forth. Michaelmas is, as the name suggests, the feast of Archangel Michael. As some may recall, Archangel Michael was the one to throw Lucifer from Heave.

Last year I was about to make a Michaelmas post, but blackberries strangely disappeared from stores before Michaelmas. And the same happened this year (maybe Devil spits earlier here). I was able to find some frozen boysenberries instead. I followed the recipe otherwise, but substituted 95 g normal wheat flour and 1 tsp baking powder for self-raising flour and used twice the amount of boysenberries. Yummy!

 

See how the light is vanishing (compare the picture on top for the one above).

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