We love a bit of Christmas pudding and what better way to spend “stir up” Sunday than making a Christmas pudding for your Christmas day?

We Have always used a recipe adapted from an old Mrs Beaton’s recipe book. Below is the recipe we now use which is a mixture of this and Mary Berry’s.

If you decide to give this craft a go then please share your creation using the hashtag #wiltshiregiftschristmas
To find out what we create this year watch out for the Children’s house going up on Wiltshire Gift’s Instagram and Facebook social media pages.

Christmas Pudding:

Ingredients:

  • 125 g grated chilled butter or suet (traditionally this was beef suet however you can use vegan)
  • 90 g self-raising flour
  • 125 g sultanas
  • 125 g currants
  • 250 g raisins
  • 125 g fresh breadcrumbs
  • 0.2 tsp grated nutmeg
  • 60 g mixed candied peel, chopped
  • 90 g light muscovado sugar
  • 1 lemon, grated zest and juice
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 cup butter for greasing
  • 75 ml dark rum or brandy (we always use Courvoisier)

Step by step:

  1. In a large bowl, combine raisins, currants, sultanas, lemon zest and cognac and cover to leave overnight to soak.
  2. Next morning take your zested lemon and squeeze the lemon juice into a bowl and add eggs to this and whisk.
  3. Take your bowl and now add to it your flour, suet,breadcrumbs, nutmeg, candied peel, sugar and lemon juice mix and stir until well combined 
  4. Now turn to your Pudding basin which should be at least 2pints (1.25/1.5 litres I believe is the Modern sizing ours has been handed down to us so modern bowls may vary slightly ours holds however 1.5 litres once full) thoroughly grease your basin with your butter or oil should you prefer making sure you go up the sides.
  5. Once thoroughly greased, spoon in your pudding mixture and ensure you level out the mixture on top.
  6. Now you need to wrap your pudding. With a layer of greased greaseproof paper then foil both with a pleat in the middle and then tie to the bowl under the rim of the bowl.
  7. We cook ours in our Slow cooker. Fill the slow cooker with water ensuring it is half way up the bowl with your pudding in and put on high for 6-12 hours letting it steam until cooked.
  8. Once cooked, allow to cool and replace the paper and store in a cold dry place for up to 3 months, ensuring you feed your pudding on a weekly basis for the first month.

Feeding your Christmas Pudding:

Prick the top of your pudding multiple times with a skewer or pick. Pour on more cognac over the top of your pudding base (no more than a table spoon or two per week). Then recover and store in cool dry place again between feeding.

Prepare and serve:

It couldn’t be more simple to reheat your pudding for serving. Simply place in a microwaveable dish and pop in the microwave for up to a minute depending on your microwave power.

Best served with lashings of Brandy butter or cream (or even both why not it’s Christmas after all!)

To check out more of our Christmas activities we have posted for Wiltshire Gifts you can find them all listed here.