Christmas pudding is a heavy, fuity pudding made with alcohol, raisins, nuts and other ingredients you probably wouldn't expect to find in a dessert, such as breadcrumbs! It is made towards the end of October and is boiled for a long time before being preserved until December.
To be honest I didn't know much about the process of pudding making until I did this! But I do know that once all the ingredients are in the bowl and mixed together, it's thought that if each member of the family gives the pudding a stir, they can make a wish as they do it and it might come true! This is my first ever homemade classic Christmas pudding and not only have I ticked another thing off my 101 things in 1001 days list, it will hopefully be a real treat for everyone to dig into on 25th December!
The recipe I used is here and also some photos of my pudding journey!:
Ingredients for the pudding (this makes 2 x 1.2 litre/2 pint puddings - i.e.- large)
- 50g blanched almonds
- 2 big Bramley cooking apples
- 200g box candied peel or all citron if you find it
- 3/4 of 1 whole nutmeg
- 1kg raisins
- 140g plain flour
- 100g white breadcrumbs
- 100g light muscovado sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tbsp brandy
- 250g unsalted butter, taken straight from the fridge
1. Get everything prepared: Chop the almonds coarsely and peel, core and chop the apples. Chop the candied peel if it isn't already small and grate three quarters of the nutmeg. Mix all the ingredients for the pudding, except the butter, in a large bowl.
2. Hold the butter in its wrapper and grate a quarter of it into the mixture, and stir everything together. Repeat until all the butter is grated, and then stir for 3-4 minutes. Ask the family to stir as well if they would like to, and get everyone to make a wish.
3. Generously butter 2 x 1.2 litre/ 2 pint bowls and put a disc of greaseproof paper in the bottom of each. Pack in the pudding mixture almost all the way to the top. Cover the pudding with a double layer of greaseproof paper/baking parchment, pleating it to allow for expansion, and tie with string, trimming off any excess paper.
4. Stand each bowl on a large piece of foil and bring the edges up over the top, and then put another sheet of foil over the top and bring it down underneath to make a double package to make the puddings watertight. Tie with more string, and make a handle for easy lifting in and out of the pan.
5. Boil/oven steam the puddings for 8 hours, topping up with water when required. Remove from the pans and leave to cool overnight when done. Once cold the next day, discard the wrappings and re-wrap in new greaseproof paper/baking parchment, foil and string. Store in a cool, dry place until Christmas. On Christmas Day boil for 1 hour, then serve!! Voila!
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| Before cooking |
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| After cooking! |
