My first Christmas pudding

Enjoy my recipe for the traditional style Christmas Pudding. It’s rich, alcoholic and fruity too. It lasts for ages and makes great gifts too.

So here it is my first ever Christmas pudding ready to be tested (a month early) by my family for Christmas. We had it with a lot of homemade custard. Delicious!

I love Christmas pudding. It’s a super special dessert which I would love to enjoy more often than just at Christmas. However this festive dessert makes it very special. It’s definitely easier to buy but making it at home is something  really special. I love the mix of fruits mixed in and of course them being in soaked in delicious spirits really boosts that flavour.

There is still time to make this before Christmas. I used a bag of mixed dried fruit which had all these in instead of adding them separately as the supermarket had the mixed bags on offer.

Traditional Christmas Pudding Recipe

5 from 3 votes

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Traditional Christmas Pudding

Enjoy my recipe for the traditional style Christmas Pudding. It's rich, alcoholic and fruity too. It lasts for ages and makes great gifts too.

Course Dessert

Cuisine British, English

Keyword Christmas pudding

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 12 hours

Steaming 6 hours

Total Time 18 hours 20 minutes

Servings 2 puddings

Calories 290 kcal

Author Sisley White

Ingredients

• 150 g raisins
• 150 g sultanas
• 150 g currants
• 50 g mixed peel
• 100 g dried cranberries
• 50 g glace cherries
• 1 large Bramley apple peeled and chopped
• 250 ml stout
• 100 ml brandy
• zest 1 orange
• zest 1 lemon
• 75 g cold butter plus extra for the basin
• 50 g suet
• 120 g dark muscovado sugar
• 100 chopped almonds
• 150 g fresh white breadcrumbs
• 100 g self-raising flour
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp mixed spice
• 2 eggs beaten

Instructions

1. In a large bowl mix the dried fruit and apple, then add the stout, brandy, orange and lemon zests and stir. Cover and leave overnight to soak.
2. Butter two small pudding basins, place a circle of greaseproof paper into the bottom so it's a bit easier to get the pudding out later. Sprinkle the buttered bowl with a light covering of muscovado sugar.
3. Mix the remaining dry ingredients in the large bowl. Grate the butter and add to the bowl along with the eggs and stir well.
4. Spoon into the basins and level the mix.
5. Take a large sheet of foil and greaseproof paper and butter the greaseproof paper. Make a pleat in the two together and wrap over the bowl securing with string. *See below for the link to the video on how to do this.*
6. Put the pudding on a heatproof saucer in a saucepan and pour in just-boiled water to come halfway up basin. Cover and steam for 6 hrs, topping up water occasionally so it doesn't boil dry. I set the timer for 45 minutes so I could check the water level regularly.
7. When it's cold re-cover with fresh greaseproof paper and foil and store in a cool place ready to reheat on Christmas day.
8. If you want to feed it each week before Christmas add a tablespoon of brandy, sherry or whiskey. I used a skewer to make a few holes to help the brandy soak into the middle.
9. To reheat, steam for 1 hr like before or microwave, without the foil but with the greaseproof paper, for 10 minutes. 2 minutes on and rest for a minute repeat.
10. You can feed your pudding with a tablespoon or two of extra brandy each week to boost the flavour.

Click for a great BBC Good Food video on how to wrap and steam your pudding
www.bbcgoodfood.com/technique/how-steam-pudding

I loved soaking all the fruit in stout and brandy. It smelled amazing before I started with anything else.

I was sceptical about adding a bramley apple but it looked lovely and really buffed it out a lot. Something in the stout stopped it going brown from the air but instead it went brown from the mix.

The pudding was dark brown and glossy. It smelled amazing and tasted fabulous too. I love it and loved making it far more than I thought I would. Steaming takes a while but it’s so easy. I’m so glad I made 2 little puddings so I have one for Christmas day in the pantry which will hopefully have richer, more developed and fuller flavours by the big day.

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