Christmas pudding and dessert alternatives

[TheTecknician]

I'm interested to know what sweet indulgent nosh folk go for if, like me they simply do not like Christmas pudding, Christmas cake, mince pies and trifle. It's true, none of this traditional tuck is to my taste, believe it or not. I'm not looking for suggested alternatives for me personally but I would like to know what else is out there (for fussy ***)! Can't be just me.

Pannetone bread and butter pudding or panettone black forest trifle are both lovely.

I wouldn't say one was Christmas dessert worthy on its own. A good stollen is bloody amazing, but hard to find. Also more of a cup of tea and slice kind of sweet than a proper pudding, I always think

Chocolate log (bought)
Winter jelly with soaked dried fruits and cinnamon
Brandy baskets with lemon filling (lemon curd, macaroons and a little whipped cream) topped with raspberries, mint leaves and a drizzle of plain chocolate, then dusted with icing sugar (with Siemens edible glitter). They are light, easy and look fabulous if I can find the brandy baskets anywhere

This year, I’m planning a lemon tart with berries, and a cranberry cheesecake.

Stollen and panettone are breakfast foods in this house. We have them, cinnamon rolls, chocolate brioche etc for Christmassy breakfasts between 24th December and New Year.

Tiramisu with a Christmas twist - I use amaretto biscuits and sprinkle dried mixed fruit soaked in mulled wine in between the layers too. Also a drop of rum in the mix.

Oh, and sometimes I use tiramisu just as a topping for stewed apples, pears etc in mulled wine.

Well it is certainly reassuring to see that there are many choices beyond the traditional Christmas desserts and cakes.

For those of you who make your own trifle, what type of sherry do you use?

I’m doing a lemon curd and blueberry compote Eton mess this year. But I’m partial to an old school trifle. No booze!

Mint vienetta always reminds me of Christmas.

Meringue in the shape of a Christmas tree, sandwiched with cream and fruit.

My trifle has no sherry. Or jelly.

Raspberries, tinned, the juice thickened and poured on the Sponge. Custard, cream.

I thought sherry was non-negotiable with trifle. Clearly I am out of touch.

Sherry trifle is a specific variant. Trifle doesn't usually have sherry.

Are fruit breads like stollen and panettone popular in the UK? They always look a bit dry and dusty to me - probably too much icing sugar.

Panettone makes the best bread and butter pudding or we use it for pain perdu (essentially French toast with a dollop of cream in the egg mix). Both delicious and relatively light.

Nigella’s girdlebuster pie here. It’s a biscuit base with coffee icecream on top (or vanilla) and then a toffee sauce. Keeps in the freezer for ages, so you can make it well in advance

Pain perdu with panettone sounds delicious! We like it toasted with butter and whisky marmalade. DH puts brandy butter on his, but he's a heathen

@TheTecknician whatever clear alcohol you have in your cupboard will be fine. Shyness with your alcohol is not called for here.

Sticky toffee pudding from cartmel, either direct or from Waitrose.

i love Xmas pudding so get a small pudding for me & STP my daughter

This year we are eating out, two have picked lotus biscuit cheese cake, 2 Xmas pudding & two chocolate brownies with ice cream.

This year I'm going to do a cheesecake (probably strawberry), a chocolate brownie trifle, apple crumble, Christmas decorated cookies and then jelly and ice cream. This will be for 6 adults, 5 children.

I haven't had cheesecake for years. It has a kind of 1970s feel about it, like Black Forest Gateau. Nothing wrong with that though. I've heard lime and ginger cheesecake is the best variety.

I serve three puddings on Christmas Day. As well as Christmas pudding (which two people want) we have a chocolatey one (which for the last few years has had to be vegan) and a fruity one - something like a pavlova, Eton Mess, cheesecake or lemon posset.

Personally I go for the fruity version. I do like Christmas pudding (and stollen and pannetone) but they are too much after a huge meal.

We do Black Forest gateau. I don’t drink anymore so won’t eat boozy puddings. The kids don’t like Christmas pudding. And after 3 years of Dh and the rest of the family saying yes they definitely want a traditional Christmas pudding and then no one actually wanting to eat any of it (and eating all my alternatives instead!), I’ve given up and Black Forest gateau is the new Christmas pudding.

I'm not sure what it is about Christmas pudding that I dislike. After all, I do like sponge puddings and custard generally. Maybe it's the spiciness - I suppose that applies to mince pies and Christmas cake (fruit cake generally). On the plus side, abstinence from these sweet delicacies potentially allows room for cheese, crackers, peanuts, mini-Cheddars, Pringles, liqueur chocolates and so on.

A black forest gateau without kirsch?

I'm in Australia and have a cold Christmas dinner. I make raspberry sorbet and chocolate sauce for the pudding. It also works in reverse as chocolate sorbet with raspberry sauce - a bag of frozen raspberries blitzed and strained).

DS prefers raspberry sorbet.