Christmas Pudding

[mamapain]

Usually I make us a Christmas pudding or two, but the recipe I have always relied on is very traditional.

It's lovely tasting and quite very boozy but I did wonder if anyone had an alternative, tried and tested recipe?

No but now I really really want some!!!

I mamapain you can my mum's recipe!!

I think she originally got it from the 'Farmhouse Cook Book' but it's been modified by her for decades since and is awesome!!

Hers is always a bit nicer than mine - darker. I think that's probably because she puts in more booze!

I've just got to help with DC with duplo but will post recipe later.

Right... here it is. Be warned though, this is NOT an exact science! Every year I can't remember how much it makes! The recipe says 12-16 portions. I think it makes a couple of basins.

4oz flour
2oz breadcrumbs
teaspoon each of mixed spice, cinnamon and nutmeg
4oz suet
4oz brown sugar
4oz grated apple
1 grated carrot
20oz mixed dried fruit (the bags of raisins, sultanas and peel)
4oz chopped, blanched almonds
1/2 lemon rind
juice 1/2 lemon
grated rind 1/2 orange
tablespoon or golden syrup
1/4 pint of milk
'glugs' of sherry/port/whiskey/brandy (3 gluts? whatever looks right)

I soak the fruit in the alcohol the night before making the pudding.

My best pudding was made with port. I think I'll try brandy this year.

I'm going to make mine in the next couple of weeks. Yay! LOVE the smell of Christmas Pudding!

The Sarah raven one is my foolproof, tried and tested one. The only booze in it is some brown ale, but you can substitute this with milk. I am no cook, but it turns out really well. I simmer them for about 5 hours, and then put them away. A medium one then takes about 10 minutes in the microwave on Christmas Day.

I like the Mary Berry one that involves sugar creamed with butter, rather than using suet. It's lovely and light and full of dried apricots which give it a lovely texture and make it very moist. I use unsulphured apricots, so it ends up darker than intended, but tastes better for it.

Thanks for the suggestions, I (not a keen baker at all) have done some serious research into Christmas Puddings over the past week. What I've decided to do is adapt my original recipe, which is not too dissimilar to cooki3s.

It's from an old Good Food guide and I'll happily post it. I love it because it's properly boozy and never fails. I was just finding it a bit repetitive so I've worked out how to use the same base to et a different flavour. This year I'm going to be including a little chocolate and far more berries and using various berry liqueurs to get a sort of black forrest flavour but still with a traditional pudding.