Do you make your own Christmas Pudding or do you buy one? I know there are many good charities out there that sell quality puddings to raise money but even these will never be as good as the homemade ‘real deal’. I say this with confidence and I know that if you are a pudding lover you will love my recipe.
This recipe does not come from Mum’s Recipe book. Mum’s recipe was OK but this one is from Andrew’s mother. She made it each year for the family Christmas and it was much appreciated. She followed a long family tradition to place silver sixpences in the pudding batter before cooking so that on Christmas Day everyone would find a coin in the slice of pudding. When we went from the ‘old money’ in the 1960s in Australia the money was no longer silver and not safe to put in the pudding, so to continue the silver money tradition, the ‘cook’ had to collect and keep a pot of sixpences. So we were able to continue the tradition on the proviso that when you found the sixpence you returned it to the cook. My mother in law compensated everyone with a 50 cent coin for each sixpence. As you can imagine, when our children were young there was a competition for how much money could be earned from the pudding. Lots of slices of pudding where consumed!
Sadly my mother in law is no longer with us and the job of making the pudding fell to me. I have not continued the tradition of the sixpence (mainly because I forget to do it each year!!!) but I still love to make the pudding and will often make a double recipe so that we have enough for our immediate family as well as for the larger gathering.
So here is the recipe with a bit of a boost. I like to add some Essential Oils to the mix now to enhance the richness of the mix.
What you will need:
225 grams each of currants, raisins, sultanas and prunes
225 grams each of butter and brown sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup Plain Flour
225 grams breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 pinch of nutmeg
1 pinch salt
1 drop each of Cinnamon Bark, Ginger and Cardamom Essential Oils
5 tablespoons of brandy or rum
Method:
Prepare the fruit by chopping the larger pieces in half and mixing with the brandy or rum. Cover and leave overnight (or for a few days).
When ready to make the pudding, cream the sugar and the butter and add the beaten eggs gradually.
Add the oils and mix in well.
Add the sifted dry ingredients and breadcrumbs alternately with the fruit.
Place into 1 x large or 2 x small pudding basins. Cover with baking paper and aluminium foil. Secure by tying securely around the cover.
Add approximately 3-4 cm boiling water to the saucepan(s).
Place the pudding bowls carefully into the saucepan(s) and steam 6 hours for the large pudding or 4.5 hours for the smaller puddings. Make sure the saucepan(s) do not boil dry by adding boiling water as needed. I usually add a little every hour. The water should not be higher than half way up the pudding basin.
To reheat, steam again for 3 hours or remove from the basin, place on a plate and heat in the Microwave on High Heat for 1-2 minutes.
Enjoy!
What next?
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Until next time,
Gillian (and Andrew)
