Ida Dansy's Christmas Pudding
This is my granny's recipe for a traditional Christmas pudding. It's very rich, but despite this we all insist on having it after Christmas turkey. This recipe does take a lot of effort and it's best if you make it a month beforehand. It's still worth it. After all, Christmas comes but once a year! Don't forget, it's traditional (for luck) to get everyone in the household (who wants to!) to stir the pudding.
Ingredients
Serves: 12
- 1 wineglass of brandy or rum, and more as needed
- 225g raisins
- 225g currants
- 225g sultanas
- 110g (4 oz) mixed peel
- 175g plain flour and
- 50g self-raising flour
- 225g butter or suet, chilled and grated
- 225g dark brown Demerara sugar
- 6 eggs
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- a pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 2 apples, peeled and grated
- 225g breadcrumbs
- 110g (4 oz) slivered almonds
Method
Prep:1hr ›
Cook:6hr ›
Extra time:60days resting ›
Ready in:60days7hr
- Pour brandy or rum over dried fruit and soak for several days in fridge. Add more brandy to it if it begins to look dry.
- Rub the fat (butter or suet) into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- Add the sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and allspice. Fold in the grated apple, soaked fruit, breadcrumbs and almonds.
- Place mixture in a well-greased 1.2 litre (2 pint) pudding basin and cover top with greaseproof paper (or use a pudding cloth - see footnote).
- Partially fill a large pot with boiling water. Place pot on cooker and bring to a steady boil. Place bowl in the pot (or suspend pudding in cloth over the pot). Water should reach about 2/3 of the way up the pudding. Keep adding more boiling water to make sure it doesn't boil dry. Steam for about 6 hours.
- Leave the pudding somewhere cool and dry to mature till Christmas (at least 1 month is best).
- When ready to serve, steam pudding for 2 hours. Before serving, let pudding stand out of the water for about half an hour before taking out of cloth or bowl. This will prevent it from crumbling. Serve with your choice of brandy butter, custard and/or ice cream!
How to steam Christmas pudding
See our How to steam Christmas pudding guide to get step-by-step instructions for steaming your pudding to perfection.
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Reviews & ratings
Average global rating:
(2)
Reviews in English (2)
I made it and now need time to let it mature. The volume is wrong. My final pudding was about 2.5 litres. I am sure it would serve 12 very hungry people but the recipe indicates using only a 2 pint pudding basin. Even if the recipe is halved there will be too much volume for one basin. - 10 Dec 2017
Wonderful. I shall be making this again. - 06 Apr 2013