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
Hello Rosie
Some recipes suggest using milk instead of alcohol. I think that as long as you are going to eat it soon after making it, it won’t matter if you don’t use alcohol. If you want to make it in advance, you could always freeze it.
Hi All, I was wondering if you could make this pudding without the alcohol? I’m having guests over who are teetotal and would love to make them mini christmas puddings to end the meal.
Hello CarolineW
Thank you so much for your contribution. I get quite a lot of emails asking the same question and now I know the answer.
Hello Ian
We keep ours on a shelf in the larder. It’s cool and dry in there.
Hi Sarah
That’s good news. Using the electric steamer would be much more cost effective too.
I made small christmas puddings yesterday and steamed them in an electric steamer for the same time as recommended in the recipe for stove top steaming. They look and smell good!
Hi, Great recipe, I was just wondering , I am making my pudding on Sunday 22nd November this year and when I make it where do i put it to mature after i’m finished the preparation?
I have a plumbed in steamer (fits above the oven like a microwave does) and I cook my puddings in it for the same time as the recipe says for conventional cooking. I’ve done this for the last 7 years and they’ve turned out perfect each time.
Hi Sonia
I’m sorry I can’t help as I have had no experience with an electric steamer.
I’ve noticed that someone has recommended using an electric steamer to cook their puddings. How long would you recommend cooking them for? With the price of gas as it is, my husband would most probably have a heart attack if I boiled these puddings for 8 hours! It just doesn’t seem a very cost effective way of making this pudding in these credit crunched times!
Great!
After six hours of boiling, both puddings looked the same beautiful dark colour. I guess it’s the same as, or better than, putting one in a steamer above the water but I’ve never used that method.