Alison Niven

Clootie Dumpling

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Preparation info
  • Serves

    12–14

    • Difficulty

      Easy

Appears in
Gloagburn: Recipes from a Scottish Farm
Gloagburn

By Alison Niven

Published 2025

  • About

Traditionally, Clootie Dumpling is a Scottish birthday pudding, but we serve it in the café all winter with custard and it’s very popular. This is my mother’s recipe and it’s very easy. You can freeze any leftovers, and slices of dumpling are also delicious fried alongside a cooked breakfast.

Ingredients

  • 450 g plain flour
  • 200 g fresh white breadcrumbs
  • 125 g</

Method

  1. Mix all the ingredients together to get a soft, dropping consistency – you can add a little more milk if you think the dough looks too stiff.
  2. Soak your cloot (cloth) in boiling water and then squeeze it out and lay it on your worktop. Lightly flour the cloth and put the dumpling dough in the centre, then pull up sides of the cloth around it and tie securely at