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Christmas Pudding
Made on Stir-up Sunday, steamed for hours, aged for weeks, and carried to the table in flames — the most ceremonial dish in the English year.
- Prep
- 40 min
- Cook
- 480 min
- Total
- 520 min
- Yield
- Serves 8–10
- Difficulty
- Involved
- Era
- Victorian codification
Ingredients
- 400g mixed dried fruit; 100g glacé cherries; 50g chopped almonds
- 100ml brandy or stout, plus more for feeding; zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon
- 110g shredded suet; 110g fresh breadcrumbs; 110g plain flour; 175g soft dark sugar
- 1 tsp mixed spice; ½ tsp grated nutmeg; 1 apple, grated; 2 eggs
- Brandy butter: 100g soft butter, 100g icing sugar, 3 tbsp brandy
Method
- Soak the fruit in the brandy overnight. Stir in everything else — clockwise, with a wish, as tradition demands.
- Pack into a buttered 1.2-litre basin; cover with pleated parchment and foil, tied with string.
- Steam for 6 hours, topping up the water regularly.
- Cool, re-wrap and store in a cool dark place for up to 6 weeks, feeding with brandy fortnightly.
- On the day: steam 2 hours more to reheat.
- Warm a ladle of brandy, set it alight, and pour it flaming over the pudding. Serve with hard brandy butter that melts into glory.
Oven temperatures are given in Celsius, Fahrenheit, fan and gas mark throughout. Quantities are metric, as cooked and written in the UK.