Newsletter #30 – Christmas pudding

With so many alternatives for Christmas desserts in Australia, the traditional Christmas pudding has less appeal than it used to, with probably sticky date pudding edging its rival out in terms of popularity.

There are possibly a number of reasons for this including the fact that sticky date is cheaper and easier to prepare. I think that consuming any hot dessert on a steamy Australian Christmas day can be a little daunting and Christmas pudding is somewhat heavier than sticky date.

Nevertheless, Christmas pudding will normally appear at Christmas time in most households with the leftovers being consumed well into January, because of the puddings keeping qualities.

The origin of the Christmas pudding probably predates by a few hundred years the earliest written references of this festive dessert and before the mid eighteen hundreds it was referred to as “plum pudding” even though it didn’t have plums as an ingredient. Earlier still, similar dishes had French names. What started out as a savoury dish on feast days, for the people who could afford it, gradually changed to the sweet dessert served at Christmas time.

By the 19^th Century Christmas pudding was featured in British recipe books and was promoted throughout the British Empire including Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.

While the religious significance of the pudding’s origins has dimmed, certain traditions have remained including the addition of coins into the uncooked pudding mix and flaming the pudding with brandy when it is served. Some families still make sure that each family member has a stir of the pudding mix before cooking.

My recipe is highly regarded by friends and family; before I retired our business produced over 2000 one kilogram puddings every Christmas for select clientele. By industry standards, that was a relatively small amount compared to the massive volume produced by specialist bakers.

A good variety of dried fruit, fresh apple, ginger and fruit juices are balanced with dark beer and traditional spices are the hallmarks of my pudding.

You could divide the recipe up into three separate stages of preparation:

• Marinating the fruit for at least two days
• Preparing the dry ingredients
• Mixing the pudding

Apart from a number of mixing bowls, you will require a pudding ‘basin’ which could be metal, glass or ceramic. I used ceramic pasta bowls with a volume of around 1000ml. You will also need a lidded saucepan which your basin can fit in.

Christmas pudding

Recipe for 3kg of Christmas pudding:

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course: Dessert

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 50 g pitted prunes chopped
• 150 g pitted dates chopped
• 1000 g dried mixed fruit with cherries
• 2 g orange rind
• 2 g lemon rind
• 150 g granny smith apple peeled, cored, small dice. 100g net.
• 30 g fresh root ginger peeled, finely chopped. 20g net.
• 100 ml old beer Tooheys Old
• 30 ml dry sherry
• 15 ml dark rum
• 15 ml brandy
• 100 ml orange Juice
• 100 ml lemon juice

Dry ingredients

• 200 g cake flour plain flour
• 4 g mixed spice
• 2 g ground nutmeg
• 300 g fresh breadcrumbs white and wholemeal
• 20 g ground almonds

Other

• 300 g unsalted butter softened
• 250 g brown sugar
• 200 g eggs 4 eggs at room temperature

Equipment

• Apart from a number of mixing bowls, you will require a pudding ‘basin’ which could be metal, glass or ceramic. I used ceramic pasta bowls with a volume of around 1000ml. You will also need a lidded saucepan which your basin can fit in.

Method

 

1. Assemble ingredients
   
2. In a suitable sized mixing bowl place all the fruits, ginger, alcohol and juice (the first thirteen ingredients) and mix well. Ensure the ingredients are well distributed
   
3. Seal the bowl with cling wrap and refrigerate for two days, or longer
4. Prepare your breadcrumbs in a food processor (one or two days before and store in your fridge in an airtight container)
5. On the day of cooking mix the other four dry ingredients with the breadcrumbs
   
6. Remove the marinated fruit from the refrigerator
7. In your electric mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar on a medium speed for two minutes
   
8. Continuing to mix adding the eggs, one at a time
9. Add the marinated fruit and any syrupy marinade to the butter mix and combine well, but do not over mix
   
10. On low speed incorporate the dry ingredients. Again, mix well but do not over mix
    
11. Ready
    

Steaming

1. Grease your pudding basin with butter or alternatively some non-stick spray
   
2. Form enough pudding mix into a ball and then into the basin (say 1000g for a 1000ml bowl)
   
3. Gently press down the mix until it is level with the rim of the basin, or a little higher
   
4. Seal the bowl with cling film
   
5. overwrap the bowl completely
   
6. In your saucepan place a saucer in the bottom and then the covered pudding on top
   
7. Place enough water in the saucepan to just reach the pudding basin
8. Lid the saucepan and bring water to the boil
   
9. Adjust heat to maintain a slow boil
10. Steam the pudding for two hours, replenishing the water as needed with boiling water out of your kettle. Do not let the saucepan boil dry
11. After two hours carefully remove the pudding basin from the heat; discard the water
12. The cooked pudding would have will visibly risen a little, before settling back
    
13. Let the pudding sit for twenty minutes before turning it out
14. Serve immediately or wrap in cling film while still warm
    

Notes

I have a preference for preparing the pudding in November and storing it nicely wrapped in the fridge.

To re-heat I suggest to firstly unwrap the pudding, place it on a plate and loosely cover with fresh cling film before re-heating in the microwave.

Best served with vanilla or brandy anglaise.