Christmas Pudding. Anyone care to join me this Stir Up sunday?

[Slubberdegullion]

This sunday (Nov 25th) is Stir Up Sunday, the last sunday before Advent, and the traditional day of the year to make your pudding.

All the members of the family should stir the mix (for luck) and make a wish.

If you are going to do it, don't forget to start soaking your fruit tomorrow.

The needle of home baking self satisfaction (and smuggery) hits the red zone when you serve 'made by your own fair hand' pud on Christmas Day.

yeah yeah yeah...whatever

Wow you are a sewer and a tapestry-er, and a crafty type. I never knew. I only thought you were an awesome baker extraordinaire.

argh, no non no

you are a sew-er (seamstress I mean) not a sewer. sorry.

Off to watch SCD now, and then a party, will catch up here tomorrow to check on stirring.

your lapse is forgiven, i was once nicknamed sewage at school for reasons totally unrelated to nasty brown stuff.
check your facebook, there's a dear.

I've got some proper muslin but nothing else! Our pudding comes courtesy of Mssrs Marks and Spencer.

Am v impressed with all this, especially Chippyminton.

Maybe next year.

Hope I don't sound thick, but I am making Nigella's xmas pudding tomorrow and she says to steam it for 3.5hrs and then another 3.5hrs on xmas day. The question is can I cook for longer tomorrow and less on xmas day? and if so what are the timings.

steam for 4 or 5 today and then 1/2 - 1 hr on xmas day.

these are random timings I made up. they work.

Thanks SDG, you've save Christmas! I couldn't find the recipe on Delia's site (well from what I could make out I had to pay £6.50?) so I'm going to use your GH recipe instead.

Fruit is soaking, will do the rest tomorrow.

aaaggghhhh - whilst looking for a ready-made pud, i realised that the regular supermarket ones have nuts in. Looks like I will have to make one so DH can eat it, unless anyone can point me in the direction of a tasty nut-free version???

Morning all. Mine are in. I have tried to recreate the photos from the GH recipe in my profile (sadly no aga, cats, log fire, kath kidson pinny or antique mixing bowl in sight).

Chippy the GH recp has a nut free version for the one below. Do you want me to add the substitutions here?

Have tried your e-mail btw.

Yes, substitute for the almonds please. I like the idea of a suet-free pudding.
I will be a day or two late as doing an online supermarket shop for tomorrow.

Was that any Italian man in particular?

Righto.

GH says: Can't eat nuts? Leave out the almonds and replace the luxury dried fruit with 900g chopped dried fruit such as apricots, apples, pears and whole sultanas.

I didn't know the luxury dried fruit had nuts in tbh (I had a tonne of raisins, currants and sultanas left over form the Christmas cake so I just used those).

On a gluten free diet? Replace the breadcrumbs and flour with gluten free breadcrumbs and 75g ground almonds.

I'm just writing everything down now.

Chippy, the concensus from last night was that all Italian men were fond of it

an interesting diversion from xmas puds

several pud recipes contain prunes, think i'll try that and will get regular fruit rather than luxury. who needs luxury anyway - bah humbug!
Have added value honey to my shop too No, really!

tesco luxury mix doesn't have nuts + i have leftover raisins and peel, so that will make up the weight.

Oh yes, some prunes would be nice. This is my 2nd year with this GH recp. next year I may feel more confident to start fiddling about with the ingredients.

Thank you for the honey. I read somewhere a few weeks ago that honey on toast is the best thing to eat the morning after, to combat hangover symptoms. Very wise to have a stash of it in for next sunday. Your poor DH/DC, to think they will be confronted with post party hangover me on our first meeting.

we did it!

was fun and easy - hardest part was shopping and I managed to grate my finger when doing the nutmeg - but toherwise a resounding and satisfying sucess!

thanks slub - thanks all.

Glad you had a fun time BBBee. It's a lovely thing to do. Extra luck for the person who finds your grated bit of finger on Christmas Day as well

Puds in the oven now, after an emergency call out to mum to bring pudding basins, a hunt for string resulting in the use of bootlaces and faces when we got to the oven bit LOL. Should've read the recipe through before starting LOL

Are they still in? Do you have a nice smell? I thought I had loads of the almonds but as it turned out I had loads of flaked almonds so that's what went in . All the same difference really. nuts is nuts.

House smells divine. I have a 2.5 pint basin and a 1.5 pint basin, so will take small one out in about half and hour and leave the bigger for a further hour, i think.

And I am going to paste your recipe post into my recipe book for posterity

How do you store them til xmas?

chipo, 1 layer of clingfilm, x2 layers of foil. Keep somewhere cool (mine are in my garage).

Chippy , hope it's called Slubber's Christmas Pud and you have crossed out the Good Housekeeping bit.

Slubber - clingfilm? Are you sure you don't mean greaseproof?

Wouldn't the clingfilm melt in when you resteam?

wisteria, unwrap the pud and pop it back in its bowl to steam it

ahhh - that's why I rewrap them in buttered gp followed by foil - no farking about on Christmas Day then!!

do you stick in back in the bowl too? [confused but proud of my puds]