isithalal.food

Halal-conscious recipe

Jam roly-poly with vegetable suet

A rolled British jam pudding steamed in the oven, made with vegetable suet in place of beef suet, a vanilla pod rather than extract, and served with custard.

  • Cuisine British
  • Meal Dessert
  • Difficulty Easy
  • Yield 1 roly-poly, 6 slices
  • Time 1h 20m
  • Last updated

Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.

Printable view
The front of a box of Atora Vegetable Suet, set on a blurred copy of the same photo
Photograph from our ingredient library: a box of vegetable suet, not the finished dish.

Photo: Open Food Facts contributors · CC BY-SA 3.0

Why Halal checks matter here

Jam roly-poly is made with shredded suet, and the beef suet sold in UK shops is beef fat with no Halal mark; swapping the vanilla pod for vanilla extract would add alcohol.

Jam roly-poly is a suet dough spread with jam, rolled up and steamed, and BBC Good Food's version cooks it in the oven over a tin of boiling water so you don't need a steamer. Its recipe asks for "shredded suet", which in UK shops is either beef suet, with no Halal mark on the Atora or Aldi packs, or vegetable suet made from palm and sunflower oil (see suet).

This version uses vegetable suet at the same weight. If you prefer beef suet, buy it from a Halal butcher. The recipe flavours the dough with seeds from a vanilla pod. Keep the pod: vanilla extract is made with alcohol, which scholars differ on.

The tin of water fills the oven with steam, so the pudding steams as it bakes. Wrap the roll loosely, because it puffs up as it cooks.

Halal-critical ingredients

  • Shredded suet Beef suet is beef fat. The Atora and Aldi beef suet pack records show no Halal mark, so it is Halal only from Halal-slaughtered cattle. Use vegetable suet, which is palm and sunflower oil, or beef suet from a Halal butcher. See Suet.
  • Vanilla The recipe uses the seeds from a vanilla pod. Vanilla extract is made with alcohol, and scholars differ on it. Keep the pod, or use an alcohol-free vanilla. See Vanilla extract.

Safe substitutes

  • Beef suet → The same weight of vegetable suet, or Halal beef suet
  • Vanilla extract → A vanilla pod, as here, or alcohol-free vanilla

Allergens

gluten (flour, and the flour in shredded suet), milk (butter, milk)

Ingredients

Pudding

  • 50 g (3½ tbsp) salted butter, cold and cut into chunks, plus extra for greasing
  • 250 g (2 cups) self-raising flour, plus extra for rolling
  • 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out
  • 50 g (1¾ oz) shredded vegetable suet (or beef suet from a Halal butcher)
  • 150 ml (⅔ cup) milk, plus a drop more if needed
  • 100 g (4 oz) raspberry or plum jam, or a mixture

To serve

  • to serve custard

Method

  1. Set up the oven. Put a deep roasting tin on the bottom shelf of the oven with another shelf directly above it. Pull the tin out on its shelf, fill it two-thirds with boiling water from the kettle and slide it carefully back in. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, gas 4). Tear off a sheet of foil and a sheet of greaseproof paper, each about 30 × 40 cm, lay the paper on the foil and butter it.
  2. Make the dough. Pulse the butter, flour and vanilla seeds in a food processor until the butter disappears, then tip into a bowl. Stir in the suet, pour in the milk and work it together with a cutlery knife into a sticky dough, adding a drop more milk if your flour needs it.
  3. Fill and roll. Tip the dough onto a floured surface, pat it smooth and roll it out to a square of about 25 × 25 cm. Spread the jam all over, leaving a gap along one edge, then roll up from the opposite edge. Pinch the jam-free edge into the dough where it meets, and pinch the ends roughly.
  4. Wrap and bake. Lift the roll onto the buttered paper, join-side down, bring the paper and foil loosely up around it and scrunch the edges and ends to seal. It puffs as it cooks, so don't wrap it tightly. Set the parcel directly on the shelf above the tin of water and cook for 1 hour.
  5. Rest and serve. Leave the pudding for 5 minutes before unwrapping, then open the foil and paper carefully and cut thick slices. Serve with custard.

How this recipe was researched

Method adapted from BBC Good Food's 'Jam roly-poly' (butter, self-raising flour and vanilla seeds pulsed together, shredded suet and milk stirred in, rolled to a 25 cm square, spread with jam, rolled up, wrapped loosely in buttered greaseproof paper and foil, and baked for 1 hour on a rack over a tin of boiling water at 180°C). The recipe says only 'shredded suet'; we specified vegetable suet, or beef suet from a Halal butcher, and kept its vanilla pod. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Technique and ingredient sources

  1. Jam roly-poly — BBC Good Food Retrieved:

    Serves 6: 50 g salted butter, 250 g self-raising flour, 1 vanilla pod, 50 g shredded suet, 150 ml milk, 100 g raspberry or plum jam; rolled to 25 cm square, wrapped in buttered paper and foil, cooked 1 hour at 180°C (160°C fan) over a tin of boiling water. We specified vegetable or Halal beef suet.

  2. Suet analysis — isithalal.food Retrieved:

    Beef suet and vegetable suet from UK pack records.

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