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.
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I might just do that Danny if i have not had to much bubbly and remeber to record a video for you 😀 I think i just might forget about the turkey and just server the pudding. I can not wait to get stuck in to it.
Well done, Joe, for perseverance in nurturing your time bomb 🙂
We would love a video posted on YouTube of the Christmas Day pudding-set-aflame-moment!
Only joking. It should be fabulous because all the alcohol will have evaporated, leaving behind the wonderful flavours of the port and brandy.
Keep us updated, please.
Hi Joe
My mouth was watering as I read your comment – it sounds wonderfully boozey and superb!
Just thought I would update everyone on my pudding i made it on the 27th sept and have been feeding it once a week with a dash of port or brandy and it is looking and smelling beautifuly christmasy (if there was such a word).
The pudding it wonderfully moist as well so I have slowed down the feeding to just a drop if it looks dry. I have used almost a whole bottle I might lose an eyebrow or two when i light it.
One addition i would of made now i thought of it would be some nuts, but that will be nexts years
Hello Linda
This is a brilliant idea thank you so much!
Hi, was just checking out how to store Xmas puds when I came upon your blog, I read the comments and noticed some people are of course keen to try and save money in these credit crunch times and rightly so.
I hope this helps, I cooked my puds in a slow cooker and I’ve been told that it uses electricity equivalent to a light bulb my cooking was a little differant than in the instructions below as my puds were done in pint pudding basins with this being the first time of cooking them this way so I was worried they wouldn’t be cooked properly so I cooked mine for 12 hours each pudding, I put them in at 8pm and took them out at 8am so cooked while we were in bed and I must admit I was very sceptical but after taking off the greasproof paper and foil the first one looked absolutely gorgeous. Anyway hope this helps someone.
Make pudding to your usual recipe and place in pudding bowl, put the pudding in the slow cooker, pour in boiling water, to about 2/3 up the side of the basin and then cover and leave. It will not boil dry or spoil. If bowl is slightly too tall for the lid on cooker to fit properly, cover the top of the cooker and the pudding with a sheet of foil and tuck it under the rim, then put the lid on top to weight it down. A 2 pint/1 litre pudding takes about 13 hours to cook on ‘high’. Smaller ones would need to have less time.
Hello Rosie and Margaret
Thank you both so much for your contributions. Much appreciated.
Thank you so much. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
I’m sure apple juice would be delicious.
Thanks Margaret. Will make it this Sunday so was thinking of putting it in the fridge, and would using apple juice work do you think?