Christmas Plum Pudding. Bringing again a conventional favorite. An actual quaint British favorite, with no suet and modern-day tweaks to make it completely.
Christmas Plum Pudding. A reinvented recipe.
Initially printed Dec 2020!
First let’s begin with the fundamentals. There aren’t any plums in Plum Pudding.
Now that will sound a bit bizarre to a few of you proper on the outset. Nonetheless, in these components, the place there aren’t any figs in Figgy Duff, the idea just isn’t so unusual.
All of this naming confusion, in fact, harkens again to our British heritage. This connection to our roots on the opposite facet of the Atlantic stays a continuing affect in Newfoundland cooking and tradition.
In pre-Victorian instances, each plums and figs had been frequent names for raisins within the UK. The truth is, puddings like this are even older and might be traced all the way in which again to medieval instances.
Sultana Raisins are nice on this recipe however you need to use any sort you want.
Centuries in the past they had been easier affairs, with the earliest solely consisting principally of dried fruit, sugar, eggs, breadcrumbs and spices. Whereas this recipe is a extra modernized model, it nonetheless stays true to these roots by together with all of these unique parts.
Lining the bowl with strips of parchment paper helps launch the completed pudding
Fire up Sunday.
An extended held custom that you could be additionally prefer to revisit, is Stir Up Sunday. That’s the final Sunday earlier than Creation when households historically made and steamed their Christmas Puddings.
This ritual was a studying expertise for kids and a method to cross the custom on to the subsequent era. The long-held follow was meant to be shared by all the household, with every member taking their flip to stir the pudding earlier than being steamed.
One ritual was for every individual to make a silent want for the subsequent 12 months as they stirred. Every member of the family participating was supposed to make sure good luck within the 12 months forward. (I feel this 12 months we may use that greater than ever!)
Christmas Plum Pudding. A reinvented recipe.
A extra trendy Plum Pudding.
Yr after 12 months it by no means fails that I get messages from readers regionally, asking me for a neighborhood supply of suet to make a conventional pudding or cake.
In fact, in trendy supermarkets it will possibly hardly ever be discovered. I’ve solely ever seen it a few instances within the frozen meals part, after which, solely across the Holidays as you’ll anticipate.
I like to make use of each crimson and inexperienced glacé cherries for a extra festive look.
In case you’ve by no means hear of it, as many outdoors the UK won’t have, it’s a explicit sort of arduous fats across the kidneys of cows or sheep. Finely chopped or grated suet was a quite common ingredient in lots of “puddings” centuries in the past and nonetheless survives at this time in British cooking and baking.
Attempting to put in writing a modern-day recipe for Plum Pudding that features suet, was a bit pointless if no one can discover it, even when they wished to make use of it. I made a decision to make use of butter as an alternative.
Cowl the pudding bowl with a few layers of parchment paper and tie with butcher string
A few layers of aluminum foil will safe the highest much more
The suet mainly varieties small pockets of fats within the pudding combination, which then melted into the pudding because it cooked, including flavour and moisture. On this recipe I change it with very chilly butter which will also be grated or processed with the flour in a meals processor to imitate the identical total impact on the recipe.
Really, I feel it turned out fairly nicely. I feel it additionally tastes higher as a result of, nicely, butter makes every thing higher, doesn’t it?
Steaming a Plum Pudding.
That is typically the factor that intimidates folks most about making a conventional plum pudding like this. Nonetheless, it actually shouldn’t.
A pudding steamer is a pleasant factor to have, and certainly we do have a few vintage variations in our personal kitchen. Many are sometimes too small for an honest sized pudding in my expertise, as nicely.
A devoted steamer just isn’t essential although, solely a bit ingenuity is required to make one out of obtainable objects already in your kitchen.
Place the finished pudding on a trivet in a big pot
A big inventory pot is right as a steamer
I principally use a glass or metallic bowl as a pudding steamer/mould. I’ve one set of metallic bowls that’s the good form for this, which is a kind of oval-ish, half egg form.
Having multiple dimension of bowl permits me to make totally different dimension puddings as nicely, which is useful when all my household reveals up for Christmas.
The pudding bowl/mould then will get coated with a few layers of plastic wrap or parchment paper the place it’s secured with a bit of butcher string. A layer of aluminum foil, then goes excessive.
I place a trivet, small wire cake rack, and even an previous tea plate within the backside of a giant boiler/stockpot. The ready pudding mould is positioned on the trivet to maintain it away from the direct warmth on the backside of the pot.
Then, I fill the pot with boiling water, nearly to the midway level up the facet of the bowl/mould. The pudding then steams away gently for just a few hours and that’s it.
Christmas Plum Pudding. A reinvented recipe.
Serving the pudding.
Reheating the pudding is sort of easy as a result of you’ll be able to simply put it again within the steamer for about an hour. I, nonetheless, prefer to serve it in another way.
Particularly on busy days, like Christmas Day, yet one more process like that is definitely not wanted within the kitchen. I want to serve my pudding at room temperature however serve it with a sizzling sauce like Rum & Butter Sauce or Caramel Sauce.
Serving it this fashion will permit me so as to add a tough royal icing on the high as a conventional ornament with a sprig of holly. This explicit icing has grated orange zest in it for much more flavour.
Serving it with flaming brandy on the desk is all the time a theatrical occasion to be anticipated yearly. It serves as a reminder of what Christmas celebrations ought to all the time be; good meals, time with household, and an appreciation for traditions which preserve us linked to the previous.
I hope you determine to take this nostalgic style journey with me and resurrect a scrumptious Christmas custom. To you and yours, a really Merry Christmas. Could it’s all that you just hope.
In search of extra scrumptious Christmas concepts?
In case you are searching for extra recipes like this, we’ve gathered a set of our Most Fashionable Christmas Recipes of the previous 14 years.
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Prep Time:
45 minutes
Prepare dinner Time:
4 hours
Whole Time:
4 hours 45 minutes
Plum Pudding. Bringing again a Christmas favorite. An actual quaint British favorite, with no suet and modern-day tweaks to make it completely.
Substances
For the soaked dried Fruits (See be aware beneath)
- 3/4 cup raisins
- 3/4 cup chopped glacé cherries
- 2/3 cup combined dried fruit or citrus peel
- 3/4 cup chopped dried apricots
- 2/3 cup brandy, cognac, whiskey or rum, your alternative (If not utilizing alcohol substitute grape juice or apple juice.)
For the remainder of the pudding
- 3 cups stale bread crumbs. (Bread that’s a number of days previous is greatest for making these crumbs.)
- 3/4 cup sizzling milk
- 1/2 cup flour (Sure that is all you want. There’s additionally no baking powder or baking soda on this recipe. It’s meant to be dense and wealthy.)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (Darkish brown sugar is greatest.)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup very chilly or frozen butter (Frozen is best if you’re grating the butter.)
- 6 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp pure almond extract (optionally available)
- 1/2 cup toasted chopped nuts (your alternative) (optionally available)
For the arduous royal icing on high.
- 2 egg whites at room temperature
- 2 2/3 cups icing sugar (Roughly) (i.e. powdered sugar)
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar (optionally available)
- 1 tsp finely minced orange zest or lemon zest.
Directions
- Grease a glass or chrome steel bowl or pudding mould. The bowl/mould ought to maintain about 9 cups.
- Line the mould with strips of parchment paper to assist with the discharge of the pudding later.
To arrange the dried fruit
- Merely combine collectively the dried fruits and brandy and let stand in a single day or for a number of days beforehand.
- Stir it a number of instances through the soaking time and all the time have it in a sealed plastic container or bowl coated tightly with plastic wrap. You don’t need the alcohol to evaporate.
To arrange the pudding.
- Pour the milk over the breadcrumbs and put aside when you assemble the remainder of the components.
- Sift collectively the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. Put aside.
- Whisk collectively the eggs and blend them by means of the soaked bread crumbs.
- Grate the butter and toss with the dry components. (Or use a meals processor to pulse the butter by means of the flour and spice combination. Small items of butter, in regards to the dimension of small peas ought to nonetheless be seen within the combine.
- Add the flour spice and butter combination to the bread crumb and egg combination, together with the dried fruits. (and nuts if you’re utilizing them)
- Stir collectively nicely till fully mixed.
To steam the plum pudding
- Pour the batter into the ready bowl/mould.
- Cowl the highest of the mould with the lid. If utilizing a bowl as a steamer, cowl the highest with a few layers of parchment paper or plastic wrap. Tie with a bit of butcher string or twine to safe it. Lastly high with a few layers of aluminium foil and crumple it tightly across the edges.
- Steam the pudding by in a inventory pot or giant dutch oven that’s a minimum of twice the scale of the mould/bowl you might be utilizing, and a minimum of a few inches taller.
- Place a trivet, small cake rack or an previous tea plate on the backside of the pot. Place the pudding on high of the trivet and fill the pot midway up the peak of the pudding mould with boiling water. Pour the water down the facet of the pot and never straight over the pudding mould. You will have to look at this intently and add extra boiling water each hour or so, to convey it as much as the identical degree that you just began with.
- Place the quilt on the pot and convey it to a really light simmer. This ought to be completed on a low to medium low warmth, simply sufficient to get that very sluggish simmer.
- Steam for about 4 hours, topping up the boiling water talked about above, as wanted.
- Cool the pudding within the steamer/mould for a few hours earlier than turning it out.
TIP:
- When storing my pudding after it’s cooled, I preserve it in the identical bowl by which it was steamed. I simply cowl the highest tightly with plastic wrap.
- If soaking the pudding in brandy or rum, that is additionally a helpful trick, if you happen to line the bowl with layers of plastic wrap first.
Ending the Pudding
- If you wish to add a royal icing topper on the pudding, you are able to do this a day or two upfront of serving.
- Easy beat collectively the egg whites and icing sugar (+ cream of tartar if you’re utilizing it) with an electrical mixer for five minutes till the combination stiffens. It’s possible you’ll want so as to add a few tablespoons extra of the icing sugar if the consistency is just too unfastened/runny. That is regular as a result of the eggs can very barely in dimension.
- If utilizing the citrus zest, fold it in by hand on the finish.Unfold the icing on the highest of the inverted pudding, in a kind of dripping sample. Enable to harden in a single day to serve the next day.
A brandy or rum soak
- Most frequently these types of puddings are infused with brandy or rum to go with all of the flavours inside. That is fully optionally available and ought to be completed solely when the pudding is totally cooled.
- As talked about above, I exploit the identical bowl the pudding was steamed in to do the alcohol soak.
- Line the bowl with a number of layers of plastic wrap and return the pudding to it. I exploit lengthy skewers to poke a few dozen holes into the pudding, to about 2/3 of the depth of the bowl.
- Then, I slowly spoon about 1/3 to 1/2 a cup of rum or brandy slowly over the floor.
- I normally depart that for two or 3 days after which repeat the soak once more. If you do not need it too boozy, you’ll be able to simply do one soak.
Notes
There isn’t a arduous and quick rule in regards to the dried fruits on this recipe. About 2 kilos of any combination of dried fruits you prefer to make your personal model. Substitute currants, dried cranberries, glacé pineapple and so forth for any of the fruits on this recipe to make it your personal.
Diet Data
Yield
12
Serving Measurement
1
Quantity Per Serving
Energy 353Whole Fats 19gSaturated Fats 11gTrans Fats 1gUnsaturated Fats 6gLdl cholesterol 135mgSodium 342mgCarbohydrates 36gFiber 2gSugar 20gProtein 7g
The dietary info supplied is mechanically calculated by third occasion software program and is supposed as a tenet solely. Actual accuracy just isn’t assured. For recipes the place all components will not be used totally, corresponding to these with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for instance, calorie & dietary values per serving will possible be considerably decrease than indicated.
