It's that time of year again, time to create my favourite part of the Christmas meal: the pudding.
As a family, we're not organised enough to have a 'family recipe', and I have no idea which recipe I used last (a year is a long time!). So here's this year's recipe, hopefully it won't become lost on the internet.
Having reviewed several recipes, I noticed just how wildly the ratio of ingredients varies. In an effort to approach a compromise between all the great cooks, I took the recipes from Delia Smith, BBC, 3 from Mrs Beeton, Eliza Acton, The Dairy Book of Home Cooking (my day to day cooking bible), and the Hairy Bikers (!!!). I then averaged out the quantities, rounding up or down depending on how much I liked the specific ingredient. I also disregarded anything that wasn't a consistent ingredient in all recipes & came up with this:
Ingredients
- 8 oz suet
- 8 oz Muscovado sugar
- 4 oz plain flour
- 4 oz white breadcrumbs
- 24 oz dried fruit (sultanas, raisins, currants, dates, prunes etc.)
- 4 oz candied peel
- 2 oz sliced blanched almonds
- 4 beaten medium eggs
- 1 level teaspoon mixed spice powder
- 1 level teaspoon powdered cinnamon
- 1 level teaspoon grated nutmeg
- zest of 1 orange
- 1 cup (1/4 pint) strong black tea
- 1 small wine glass brandy
Method
- Chop any large fruit such as dried figs, dates or prunes
- Mix all the dry ingredients
- Pour in the liquids and stir thoroughly
- Pass the bowl around your family so that everybody can make a wish as they stir
- Pour into 2 buttered 1 litre pudding bowls
- Make a pleat in a sheet buttered greaseproof paper
- Make a pleat in a sheet of kitchen foil
- Place the paper over the pudding and the foil over the paper
- Tie securely with string, leaving a string handle to aid lifting the hot pudding
- Steam for 6 hours, the pleats will allow for expansion and steam
- Store until Christmas
- On the day, steam again for 2 hours
- Serve, using flaming brandy as it is presented
- Accompany with brandy butter, cream, rum sauce or custard
Notes
You can use stout or orange juice instead of tea.
