Stir Up Sunday

[VestaTilley]

It’s this Sunday! I’ve got all the ingredients in, but nearly missed it.

For those of you who aren’t familiar- this is the traditional Sunday for making Christmas puddings - the name taken from the collect of the day read out in church “stir up we beseech thee, O Lord”.

My personal favourite recipe is Eliza Acton’s Christmas pudding- the recipe is online. Delicious.

Happy stirring!

I've already done mine!

We are doing it this year using my grandmas recipe

@TeenPlusTwenties Ah yes...is it even Stir Up Sunday if Jill Archer isn’t in the kitchen?! I always listen to the omnibus whilst I make mine 😊

Huh. I needed vegetable suet for the recipe in the week jnr, but ocado out of stock. Can I substitute with anything or am I going to have to go to a supermarket to look for some?

How did everyone get on or are you still steaming away?

Mine's just come out. No idea how you know if it's any good or not - I guess we'll find out on Christmas day!

I had some leftover mixture as my mum's recipe uses a bigger basin than I had so I tried a microwave mug version and ended up with a Christmas pudding flavoured brick.

This is the first year in probably about 20 years I didn't get to go to relatives and do stir up sunday f**k you covid

My first attempt seems to have gone ok! The steaming bit wasn't as technically challenging as I thought it would be 😂 We used this recipe tabithasedit.com/2014/11/21/the-christmas-pudding-glutengrainmeatrefined-sugar-free/ as I'm gluten free and my brother is vegetarian (so we couldn't use a recipe with suet). We soaked the fruit over a few days in a LOT of brandy - silly question but will it be ok for the DC to eat at Christmas? Will all the alcohol be gone by then?

I'll be doing my mincemeat tomorrow so I guess it'll be stir up Monday 😅 we've been in isolation until late last night so couldn't get to the shops to get my ingredients and had to stay in for a delivery today so I'll get it done tomorrow

I nearly had a catastrophe when I realised the deep pan I use for steaming had ended up in our storage unit (we’ve been doing work on our house). Pudding wouldn’t fit in anything else, so sent my husband on a dash to retrieve it!

I finally treated myself to The Christmas Chronicles this year and so decided to combine Nigel Slater’s recipe with the old one from the 1970s Reader’s Digest Cookery Year*, so we’ll have to see how it turns out - currently smells gorgeous!

(like @GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER* I was over joyed to find a good condition copy of this on a book stall at a fete a few years ago. Sometimes you just can’t beat a 1970s cook book - my Christmas Cake has been made to the recipe in this one every year of my life!)

Did ours together for the first time, DS who is very impulsive (ADHD) told us all his wish but everyone else kept theirs quiet. Pudding (BeRo cookbook) has 15 mins left to steam.

2 cakes and pudding made today. Cakes will be fed three time’s in total - 3 tbs of brandy. Ds1 loves them both. I’ve never been too worried about booze

Christmas cake is the stir and simmer on bbc good food and pudding was Mary Berry. I cooked the pudding in the slow cooker on low for 8 hours.

My recipe says, ‘If liked, leave overnight’, after mixing, and I always do, so 2 puds will be merrily steaming away for a good 5 hours today.

Recipe includes ale - yesterday it was most of a bottle of Theakston’s Old Peculier - I enjoyed polishing off the rest.

Now looking forward to next (Advent] Sunday, when I shall make the first batch of mince pies, with carols playing. First batch of several, but I should have enough mincemeat - made 6 jars of Delia’s a couple of months ago. 🎄

Mine doesn't say to soak but my family will hoover it up however it tastes so I think we're all good.