Old Fashioned Christmas Pudding
Warning- reading this recipe can make you fat. This pudding contains enough calories to feed a starving Ethiopian family for a month.
Ingredients
250g (2 cups) plain flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
500g (2 2/3 cups) seedless raisins, halved
375 g (2 cups) sultanas
185g (1 cup) currents
100g (3/4 cup) chopped dates
90g (1/2 cup chopped figs
45g (1/4 cup) chopped dessert prunes
185g mixed peel
90g glace cherries, quartered
90g chopped mixed glace fruits
1 carrot, grated
125g (2 cups) fresh breadcrumbs
250g suet
125g (1/2 cup) butter, melted
5 eggs, beaten
125ml (1/2 cup) Guinness stout
60ml (1/4 cup) rum
60ml (1/4 cup brandy
Finely grated rind and juice of 1 orange.
Sift flour, spices and salt together into a very large mixing bowl
Add prepared dried fruits, mixed peel, cherries and glace fruits and mix well with a wooden spoon
Stir in grated carrots, breadcrumbs and suet
Make a well in the centre of the ingredients and pour in melted butter, beaten eggs, stout, rum, brandy, orange rind, and juice into centre and mix well until mixture is evenly combined.
Spoon mixture into a large 2.75l (11 cups) pudding basin, previously lined with a circle of greaseproof paper and brushed with melted butter.
Cover with a large double square of buttered greaseproof paper, with one pleat across the centre to allow for the pudding rising. Fit lid to bowl. If the pudding bowl doesn’t have a proper lid, cover the pleat with foil, interlocking the pleat. Finally, smooth paper cover over side of the pudding basin and die down securely with strong white string under the rim of the basin with a reef knot.
Place pudding basin in a large boiler on a rack and add boiling water to come 2/3 of the way up the side of the basin. Cover the boiler and steam pudding for6 hours, checking the water level every ½-1 hour and adding more boiling water as necessary.
Remove pudding basin from boiler, remove paper and foil cover and recover with a fresh cover, prepared the same way. Allow pudding to cool, then store in refrigerator until ready to reheat.
The puddings mature with age, and are best prepared 9 months or so before they are needed.
Steam the pudding for 2 hours as above until heated through, as above.
Turn the pudding out on a large flat plate and flame with brandy. To flame the pudding, gently heat ½ -1 cup of overproof brandy until lukewarm. Pour over warm pudding, stand clear and light. It looks best with the lights out…
To add extra calories and cholesterol, cover your piece of pudding in whipped brandy cream