Baked Fig Pudding

One year I had the "traditional" Christmas meal, including fig pudding. This was one of the few dishes from that year that was good enough to make again. Source: The Joy of Cooking

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup molasses
• 2 cups finely chopped dried figs
• 1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp double-acting baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter until soft.
3. Add eggs and molasses and beat until fluffy.
4. Add the figs, lemon rind, and buttermilk.
5. Sift all dry ingredients together.
6. Stir the dry ingredients into the pudding mixture.
7. Bake in a greased 9-inch tube pan for about 1 hour.
8. Serve hot with Brown Sugar Hard Sauce.