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What is Christmas Pudding?
Christmas pudding is a traditional British dessert served at the end of the Christmas meal. It is a rather heavy, spicy and sweet pudding made up of dried fruits and alcohol.
It is often served with custard, brandy butter, cream or ice cream. However, there are definitely 2 camps when it comes to this beloved of dishes; not quite as divisive as marmite, but almost! My late husband, for example, rather disliked it.
Stir Up Sunday
Traditionally, Christmas puddings are made on, or immediately after, the Sunday before Advent, known as Stir Up Sunday; the term comes from the opening prayer in the Book of Common Prayer of 1549.
“Stir Up, we beseech thee,…”
Stir Up Sunday is a very British Christmas tradition, sadly, dying, every member of the family will take a turn at stirring the ingredients and making a wish, cementing the name Stir Up Sunday.
I am constantly urging people to make their own puddings, and have been running Christmas pudding classes for well over a decade now. Kids and adults alike are always amazed at just how easy it is.
Every Christmas period, I get countless messages from former students telling me they are still making it! Isn’t that amazing?
It’s an easy but totally indulgent recipe that hits all the right notes – sweet, spicy, fruity with a hint of crunch! The house smells wonderful as your pudding cooks away and for us, THAT heralds the start of our Christmas preparations! This is the Christmas pudding that’s graced our table for almost 2 decades! (2021 Update: quarter of a century now!).
Alcohol Free, Vegan Christmas Pudding
Christmas Pudding Tradition
Christmas pudding or Plum pudding as it is also known, goes back to medieval England although it was only in Victorian times did it take on the form we’re familiar with, that is, made in basins and steamed for hours sans meat. Prince Albert, husband to Queen Victoria, is said to have introduced the Christmas pudding as a sweet attraction at Christmas.
The traditional Christmas pudding used to be made with 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and the 12 Apostles, and the ingredients are also stirred from East to West to remember the 3 Wise Men.
In the past, cooks will quite often include a small charm in the pudding, usually a silver coin, that the finder will keep, the coin signifying wealth in the New Year. Other charms used were a small wishbone (for good luck), a silver thimble ( for thrift) and a small anchor (for a safe journey).
When should you make Christmas Pudding?
The Christmas pudding, like mincemeat, is best made a few weeks before, to let the flavours mature. As mentioned above, it’s traditionally made about 4-5 weeks before, on Stir Up Sunday.
Remember to start the day before you intend to steam the pudding. Another thing to remember on the day of steaming is that if you’re making a big pudding, that is one pint or more, you need 8 hours of cooking time, so start early! This recipe ought to give you enough to fill a 1 litre (pint and a half) pudding basin. That’s big, it ought to feed 8 people!
Make Mini Christmas Puddings
What I do these days is use a 1 pint (about 575 ml) basin and then have enough to to make 3 mini puddings (mine have a capacity of 150 ml, to the brim), perfect to give away OR if you’re like me, one before and one after Xmas with one to spare, maybe at Easter?!
Of course the mini puddings make fantastic homemade presents. Our Christmas pudding cookery classes are extremely popular, with kids and adults alike!
The picture below shows you mini puddings in plastic basins. These make life so easy, no fiddling with foil and baking paper. Just put the lid on and steam. Then when they’re done, wash and dry the lids and place them back on the puddings when completely cold.
Suet in Christmas Pudding
Suet is the saturated fat that’s found around kidneys and other organs in animals, it’s solid at room temperature. Traditionally, Christmas puddings were made using beef suet, which is shredded for use. I switched to vegetarian many years ago and much prefer its cleaner after taste.
Suet is used in steamed puddings because it has a higher melting point than butter and the pudding has a chance to set before the fat starts to melt, unlike butter. Vegetarian suet is usually made with palm oil and is also solid at room temp, also grated for use.
Substitute: no real substitute but you could get away with using solid vegetable shortening/fat. Grate the amount you need and substitute with suet in your recipe.
Although butter isn’t recommended as a substitute for suet, I have successfully used it. The pudding was absolutely delicious, although a touch greasier than its suet counterpart. Because of that, I use 80 g (2 3/4 oz) of butter. Freeze the butter, then grate just before adding to the recipe.
A Last Word
Making your own Christmas Pudding is a lot of fun, and very, very satisfying. Get the whole family involved in measuring out the ingredients, then more importantly, get them all to stir the ingredients in a clockwise motion, to represent the Three Wise Men’s journey from East to West.
Don’t forget to make a wish as you are stirring! This has long been a favourite ritual in our house.
Shall we get our aprons on?
If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Thank you!
And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood
Lin xx
More Christmas Recipes on LinsFood
Christmas Pudding, a very British Christmas Dessert
Equipment
- kitchen scales
- 1 large bowl for mixing everything
- small bowls if needed
- large wooden spoon
- 1 litre pudding basin
- Baking paper
- Foil
- Kitchen string
- scissors
Ingredients
- 200 g soft brown dark sugar
- 100 g breadcrumbs
- 100 g shredded vegetable suet/fat
- 1 tsp ground mixed spice (or Pumpkin Spice, in the US)
- pinch ground cinnamon
- pinch freshly grated nutmeg
- 200 g sultanas
- 200 g raisins
- 60 g chopped candied mixed peel
- 60 g toasted almonds, coarsely chopped
- 1 medium cooking apple unpeeled, chopped
- grated zest of 2 lemons
- 120 ml sweet sherry, like Harvey's Bristol Cream
- 4 Tbsp brandy
- 2 eggs lightly beaten, in a separate bowl
- 50 g self raising flour, sifted (for the next day)
Instructions
-
Take a large mixing bowl and put the sugar, suet, breadcrumbs and spices in & mix well.
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Add the dried fruit, peel, almonds, apple and lemon zest. Again, mix thoroughly.
- Add the alcohol to the beaten egg and mix thoroughly and add this to the above.
- Give it a good mix. Get the kids to give it a stir and make a wish (silently!). It should be a fairly sloppy mixture. Cover with clingfilm and leave overnight.
NEXT DAY
-
Stir in the flour and mix it well.
-
Put the mixture into the greased pudding basin/s, packing it in.
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Cover with a layer of baking paper then foil, making a flap on both as in image, for the steam. Tie tightly with a string.
- Steam over simmering water for 8 hours for a big pudding, 3 hours for any small ones. Don’t let the water go dry.
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If you don’t have a steamer, use a saucepan with an inverted saucer, place the pudding on the saucer and fill it up with boiling water halfway up the pudding basin. Cover with a lid and let the water simmer away.
- When done, let the pudding cool down completely (usually next day) and replace the parchment and foil with fresh.
- Store in a cool, dark place, I put mine in the garage.
- On Christmas day, steam the bigger pudding for 2 hours and the mini ones for 1.
I always wanted to try this but never made it, and being here for almost a decade now did not taste it yet. But now I think with your recipe I can give it a try. I like the replacement suggested for Seut.
I know you’ll love it.
The pudding looks divine! I love the idea of making mini puddings too. Love such cooking projects that make the whole family come together on special occasions.
Just wanted to say thank you for this. I made double the recipe and have so many mini ones that I’ve been gifting! Tried one and it’s simply delicious! This is the recipe I will be using forever!
Wow. Amazing recipe. I will try this one. Thanks for the sharing.
Thank you.
This is such a great and informative post. As someone that never made Xmas pudding before I now know enough to make one from scratch. It would be also perfect as Inheritance Recipes entry 🙂
Thank you, I’ll head on over for December.
First time I tried pudding was so many years ago when I visited some friends in Scotland during Christmas! It was so different from anything I had up to then. I love your pudding Lin. Makes me feel right in the heart of Christmas!
This pudding looks great, and yes with ice cream please!
Have a great week Lin 🙂
This looks scrummy, I missed Stir in Sunday, so this couldn’t have come at a more perfect time!
I’ve never had it but it reminds me of a Mexican bread pudding dessert called “capirotada” interesting! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Mmmm I welcome puddings like this everyday it looks so tasty!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Steaming is a welcomed changed. Sometimes I do so but the amount is quite small so the time is also shorten.
This is a gorgeous pudding Lin and I love with a splatter of custard on top.
Custard, brandy butter, hot cooca, pudding, whipped cream…ah, that sounds too incredible!!