Perfect Christmas Pudding Recipe
November 16, 2010
Each year in October time or November if I am particularly disorganised, I head off down to the supermarket and buy all the ingredients to make a Christmas Pudding. Each year I come back with enough ingredients, so I end up making three or four puddings, and giving some of these away as special gifts for Christmas. I have been using a recipe for the last ten years which I came across in a copy of the Sainsbury’s Christmas Magazine. I have adapted this to my taste, and have never had a complaint.
The first thing I recommend that you check is to see if you have a pudding dish available (if you give these away as gifts, remember to ask for the dish back so you can give again the following year). One year we did not check this, we went ahead making enough Christmas pudding mix to feed a small army, we then found we had no dishes in the house, and the supermarkets were all sold out, so embarrassingly ended up making Christmas puddings in our next door neighbours cereal bowls .
Ingredients that I use
60z (175g) Raisins
6oz (175g) Sultana’s
6 oz (175g) Currants
60z (175g) soft dark brown sugar
60z (175g) white bread crumbs
6oz (175g) vegetable suet
1 medium sluiced cooking apple (I core this and grate it through the food processor)
Grated Lemon Rind (about ½)
3 large free range eggs
40 ml of dark rum
2oz (50g)coarsely chopped blanched almonds
Pinch of salt
(The ingredients that I personally miss out are: 2oz(50g) whole candied peel (chopped) and ¼ rounded teaspoon of cloves)
1) First of all I cheat by cutting crust off bread and then putting it into the blender with the kneader/knife which makes excellent breadcrumbs.
2) I measure and put all of the other dry ingredients into the bowl
3) I mix all fo the dry ingredients to make sure everything is thoroughly mixed
4) I then add the apple and lemon rind, again mixing these in thoroughly
5) Next, I carefully break the eggs, do this into a separate bowl first, you don’t want anyone picking out egg shell on Christmas day
6) Stir everything together again, you can see the mixture starting to change shape and consistency as the sugar dissolves
7) My favourite bit is adding the rum, I normally add the 40mls, then a little extra for good luck
8) Stir the mix thoroughly, then as tradition expects, get everyone in the family to give it a mix and then make a wish
9) Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave over night
10) The next morning, mix the pudding again thoroughly
11) Grease your pudding bowl (either a 2 one pint pudding bowls or a two pint pudding bowl – if in doubt pour pints of water into the bowls slowly to find how much they hold)
12) Put a double layer if grease proof paper over the top of the bowl with a pleat in the centre, then tie string around the edge under the rim to seal the pudding (don’t forget to make a handle with the string so you can lift the pudding out of the bowl later).
13) Steam the pudding in a pan with an upturned saucer and water half way up the bowl but not touching the greased proof paper or in your steamer (6 hours for the two pint pudding, and four hours for the one pint puddings) n.b whichever way you choose to steam your pudding, check it every hour, and make sure you keep topping up the water levels
14) When you have finished steaming the puddings, let them cool, then replace the grease proof paper for fresh paper (I always add a little extra rum at this stage, I find it makes the pudding moister)
15) Store away your pudding until Christmas day.
On Christmas Day
1) Just before steaming the pudding, I lift the greased proof paper and add another cap of rum, then reseal the pudding dish
2) Whilst cooking the dinner, start steaming the pudding (as described above). It will take 2 hours to cook the two pint pudding, and about 1 ½ hours to cook the one pint pudding
3) Turn the pudding onto a hot plate
4) Warm up some Brandy in a pan (not too much though)
5) Pour the heated Brandy over the pudding and set this alight
6) Serve in warm bowls with your choice of Brandy butter, rum sauce, clotted cream etc.
Reheating Christmas Pudding
1) You can reheat Christmas pudding in your microwave, or preferably frying it in some brandy butter
by Stuart Bray
Adapted from the original recipe of Elizabeth O'Connell from the Sainsbury Magazine
