Christmas Pudding, a very British Christmas Dessert
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 quite often made with alcohol.
100gshredded vegetable suet/fator 80g salted, frozen butter, see article
1tspground mixed spice(or Pumpkin Spice, in the US)
pinchground cinnamon
pinchfreshly grated nutmeg
200gsultanas
200graisins
60gchopped candied mixed peel
60gtoasted almonds, coarsely chopped
1medium cooking appleunpeeled, chopped
grated zest of 2 lemons
120mlsweet sherry, like Harvey's Bristol Cream
4Tbspbrandy
2eggslightly beaten, in a separate bowl
50gself raising flour, sifted (for the next day)
Instructions
Take a large mixing bowl and put the sugar, suet, breadcrumbs and spices in & mix well.
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.
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.
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.
Serve with your favourite sauce - brandy butter, ice cream, fresh cream or my personal favourite, homemade custard!
Notes
Total time does not include the overnight resting.