Christmas Pudding Recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Christmas, Desserts | 83 comments
Everyone wants to make the perfect Christmas pudding. The pressure is on from November 1st. Even if you make yours then, you are bound to hear of someone’s cousin’s friend who makes the pudding to die for, just after Easter.
Don’t worry. We have the recipe for a perfect pud. We’ve made this the week before Christmas and it still tasted great. It is better if it has a few weeks to mature.
Our recipe was initially inspired by Myrtle Allen’s recipe from The Ballymaloe Cookbook
A bit lighter than the traditional English Plum Pudding, this pud is always a hugely enjoyable finale to any Christmas feast.
Christmas Pudding Recipe
Ingredients:
- 170g beef suet
- 2 tablespoon of self raising flour
- 170g of soft brown sugar
- 200g of soft, fresh white breadcrumbs
- 150g of currants
- 150g of raisins
- 150g of sultanas
- 110g of crystallised cherries chopped in half
- 2 flat teaspoon mixed spice
- half teaspoon of salt
- 3 eggs
- 75ml of the baked flesh of a cooking apple
- Zest of one large lemon
- 75ml of Irish whiskey
Method:
- Take a large bowl and add all the dry ingredients, one at a time and mixing well before adding another.
- In a separate bowl beat the eggs together and add the apple flesh and the whisky.
- Stir this into the dry ingredients and stir very well. Remember to make a wish.
- Grease a couple of 1.5 pint pudding bowls and divide the mixture between them.
- Cover the top of each pudding with a round of greaseproof paper tying it under the rim with string and making a handle across the top of the bowl.
- Steam the puddings for eight hours, a large saucepan of water (the water level half the depth of the bowls).
- Be careful not to let the water boil over the top of the bowls or boil dry. After the first half hour, I check the puddings every hour or so and top up with boiling water if necessary.
- Store the puddings somewhere cool and dry. Steam for a further couple of hours before you want to eat them.
Serve with Brandy butter, fresh cream or home made egg custard (or all three).
Tips and Tricks:
- I make the puddings first thing in the morning, on a weekend, so that they can bubble away all day whilst I am around to keep an eye on them.
Leave a reply
Hi Christmas Story
Glad that you enjoyed our recipe.
I made the pudding almost exactly as per the recipe except I used vegetable suet (yep I’m a veggie). It was absolutely fabulous. Christmas in a bowl – I loved it. Thank you 🙂
Hi Fiona
Yes just halve the ingredients.
Do i just halve the ingredients if I only want to make one pudding?
Well about 4 dozen puds into Christmas I can say that they seem to be working out quite well!
Hi Chris
We don’t baptise our puds but we do serve them with Brandy butter. Delish.
Drizzling a little olive oil down the side of the bowl would probably do the trick! Or butter.
I remember friends speaking of baptising their puddings with rum/brandy several times while they mature. Have you tried this?
Also I forgot to grease one of the bowls for the pudding and I have steamed it. Do you think I can recover from this mistake by drizzling butter down the sides of the bowl?
Thanks, Chris
Hi, Snowflye, and thanks for pointing out the squiggles. Yes, they should read “half” and I have corrected the text.
Some symbols and characters did not travel well through cyberspace when we moved the blog to a new web home recently and ½ was one of them. Now we tend to write “half” or .5
Hi, am i to presume the symbols below represent “half”? I’m going to make these puddings for the first time and don’t want to get anything wrong. Don’t know if it’s my computers fault or the webpage.
? teaspoon of salt
Grease a couple of 1 ? pint pudding bowls and divide the mixture between them.
Thanks!
Thank you
I am waiting for a new microwave to be delivered but have decided to try them in my steamer to see how they come out. I have put them into cling film, using a cup as a mould but taking them out to steam – because I could not get the lid on!! They look great at the moment, but I think I will need a firmer wrapping material as they have spread just a little. I will let you know how my trials go!
Sue