Your best recipes & tips for home-made Christmas pudding

[PassTheAfterEights]

please!

Planning to tackle next Sunday with delivery of a few Mason Cash bowls next week (what size? 20cm feels about right?)

Whose recipe is best? Mary / Nigella / Jamie / olde worlde bloggers?

How to reheat on the day - do they need to be steamed again or will a microwave do?

What else should I know?

TIA! x

Delia Smith!
We use a recipe from her "Complete" cook book which makes 2 off 2 pint puddings. I generally omit nuts (although there is no pressing reason to) and replace all alcoholic liquids with apple juice (DH wouldn't touch it otherwise.
Making it is not time consuming but then it has to steam for HOURs.

P.S. yes I do steam to reheat on the day, but any leftovers I re-heat in the microwave.

Thank you so much @YBR!

Tempted to make one or two alterations too so reassured to read it can be adapted a bit. Do you feed yours any more apple juice over the month to Christmas? And if not is it still gooey enough? Was tempted to fling a lot more brandy in there over the month (pregnant so on the wagon & can't miss an opportunity!!)

I've been using nigella's recipe for years. For me if it ain't broke...
Though will follow this thread out of interest

No, I don't feed puddings.
Isn't feeding for Christmas Cake?
(I use Delia's recipe for Rich Fruit Christmas cake also)

I aught to add mu Mother and I are both complimented on our Christmas Cake and Christmas Puddings from these recipes.

Eliza Acton!

I'm also a fan of Delia Smith recipe.If you are planning to make them this weekend and like them boozy - weigh out your dried fruit now and slosh your alcohol of choice in . Cover the bowl in cling film or foil and leave somewhere. Give it a shake or two a few times a day and add more alcohol if you like. When I cook mine I do it in the slow cooker for basically all day (topping up with water of needed) and again on Christmas day.

Fantastic, thanks very much for all this!

Thinking of smooshing the best of Nigella & Delia into one - adding almonds and a second liquor to Nige really (slightly influenced by the ingredients list on the Fortnum's King George pudding, which was brought as a gift by one of DB's gf's a few years ago and we all really rated, and seems to be the perfect blend of both). Not sure where I stand on stout as a flavour and might sub out for brandy? And will def start soaking fruit on Monday, thank you!

You are right re feeding a Christmas cake rather than pudding and thank God you mentioned. We'd have been swimming.

Slightly ahead of the game but technical question (sorry this is BASIC but the queen celeb chefs all disagree & keen not to screw up); I'm reading "steaming" and imagining a standard one layer stainless steel veg steamer - water in the bottom, pudding basin on the mezzanine (tightly wrapped) and the heat from the steam on the (ceramic) basin being what cooks the pud. Is this right? Nigella is saying plastic basin - is a ceramic one going to behave differently? I had in mind to follow Delia's double-baking paper + foil + tight string and string handle on a ceramic Mason Cash basin but notice Nigella says you can also submerge half the (plastic) basin in the simmering water, standing on the bottom of the pan - presumably also an option for a ceramic bowl BUT in both cases would go a lot faster than the 5 hour steam?

Thanks again so much.

I see you are sorted for recipe, but I steam mine in the slow cooker overnight.
Otherwise yes partially submerge in a saucepan of boiling water.

Boil it, boil it, boil it some more. And then boil it again.

The next day do the same.

Then a bit more boiling.

In the past, I have made Delia’s Christmas pudding, and it was very nice - I love Christmas pudding, but the rest of the family are not keen (though dh likes to have a bit), and one year I decided I couldn’t be bothered with all the faff - especially boiling it for 6 fecking hours, so I just bought one.

To be honest, if you get a good bought one, (Finest/Waitrose etc) they are every bit as good as the ones I made, and at least, when all the boys turn it down, I don’t feel aggrieved at all the effort that went into making it.

I have a recipe for microwave puddings which I have been usng for over 20 years. Makes enough for two puddings. Eat one this year and freeze the other one for next. To reheat, defrost one at room temp, then microwave on defrost for 8minutes. And I feed them!

That sounds interesting, @Proseccoagain - are they rich, dark puddings, and can I ask what the recipe is, please?

I am wondering now if I could microwave Delia’s pudding?

SDTGyes, they are rich dark puddings. Recipe below.
100g butter
2 tbsp black treacle
225g currants
150g raisins
150g sultanas
225g soft dark brown sugar
1 tbsp ground mixed spice
175g fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs
75g plain flour
3 eggs
Grated rind and juice of 1 orange
100ml stout (e.g. Guiness)

1. Melt butter and treacle in large microwave bowl on high for 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds.
2. Add all remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.
3. Cook uncovered on High for 6 minutes, stirring after every minute, till bubbles appear on the surface.
4. Lightly grease 2 x 750g pudding bowls.
5. Spoon mixture evenly between bowls, levelling the surface.
6. Cover with a circle of baking parchment/greaseproof paper, and cook each pudding separately on defrost for 15/16 minutes. The puddings are cooked when dry on the

surface and firm to the touch.

1. Leave to stand for 15 minutes, then turn out if serving immediately.
2. Otherwise, cool , wrap and freeze in the bowls.
3. To reheat, thaw out overnight, and reheat on Defrost for 8 minutes.

I usually feed my puddings with brandy or nice liqueur of choice before freezing!
I have been making these puddings since the late 1990s, family love them, hope you do.

Thank you for the microwaveable recipe. I might try this as an experiment but for the actual Christmas Day pudding I quite like the idea that it's been cooking for so long.

I use a Pyrex bowl and cover it with two layers of aluminium foil and then tie string in a cross at the bottom and the top (like a piece of ribbon around a present) and a loop at the top so it gives me something to grab onto to so I can take it out of my deep (stock) pan. I do as nigella says and keep the boiling water half way up the bowl throughout. Have to keep an eye on the water level so it doesn't dry out.

Boil it, boil it, boil it some more. And then boil it again.

presumably everyone has already got the sprouts on, so you could pop the pudding into the same pan.

Sometimes our sprouts do turn out as if they've been boiling for a few days

We use hte old family recipe which makes the best puddings!
But for steaming - yes ceramic bowl, wrapped in greaseproof, foil, muslin and tight string, and stand in about 2-3" of boiling water in saucepan with a lid on. You have to keep an eye on it and keep topping up or else it will boil dry.
Always re-steam on the day to heat.
You have to be careful microwaving leftovers - high sugar and alcohol content means they heat very quickly and can catch fire.

You don’t need to freeze spare puddings. They should be fine just kept somewhere cool and dry. We do massive batches and keep them for several years.

This is all immense, thank you so much!

Loving the sound of the microwaveable recipe, thanks so much for sharing - will give one a go.

Thank you also re steaming tips, that's great - will def give it a go next week just because I feel all fired up now. Although planning to make six to include gifts (bold, I know) so hoping that I can do them in pairs and leave the uncooked bowls a day or so until the hob and pan are free...

On the day, picturing a JK Rowling esque four foot tall version of my parents' multi stack hob top steamer thing with its own pudding mezzanine under all the veg and a facial steamer on top. STEAM EVERYTHING.

PS - ordered 6 x Mason Cash 1l pudding basins very affordably from Nisbets at 1715 yesterday; arrived with free delivery just now 17 hours later. Excellent.

Echoing the recommendations (a) for Delia's recipe and (b) for using the slow cooker to steam and re-heat the pudding. No need to worry about the water evaporating if you do that, which would be an issue doing it on the hob, and on Christmas Day it's good not to need the hob space. I put mine on to re-heat in the utility room soon after I get up on Christmas morning. All I need to do then is turn it out when we're ready to eat it, take it to the table, pour over a little brandy, set it alight, eat. We love it.

I've never frozen a pudding as they do keep for ages as long as they're steamed a very long time first, covered and stored somewhere cool. I imagine if the recipe didn't contain copious amounts of alcohol, sugar and spice it might be a different story, as all of those are natural preservatives.

I have a seriously old set of cookery cards from a TV programme called Yorkshire Farmhouse Cooking back in the 70s, brilliant pudding recipe, I make it every other year, one sits at the back of the fridge all year, well wrapped etc. When I had a pressure cooker a pudding took about an hour and a half to cook and twenty minutes to reheat as we ate dinner on the day.

Delia's recipe for mincemeat is wonderful, takes less time than going to the shops to buy their generally vile stuff. I make half the recipe and get about 30 from it.

I have the old recipe my Mum and Grandma used.
It makes 3 1.2l size puds, which I do every 2 years.
I use Lakeland lidded plastic pudding basins for steaming.
I feed them.

The one that's left over the the following year is wrapped (in the bowl) in tin foil and kept in the meter cupboard (which is cool).

I have a question though. I will have time to make the mix this w/e but not the 5hrs to steam. Will it be OK to keep the mix for a few days? In the fridge, or just somewhere cool?

@BareBelliedSneetch - you are right that you don't have to freeze Christmas puddings - storing them somewhere cool and dry is fine, and will allow the puddings to carry on maturing. Some people don't like their puddings to get too dark and mature, and freezing will prevent this (another tip I got from the Blessed Saint Delia of Cooking).