Gloria's Traditional Christmas Pudding
This is what some people refer to as plum pudding. It is a traditional steamed English Christmas pudding -- actually more like a very moist cake loaded with dried fruits. I have always served mine with hard sauce -- a concoction of unsalted butter, confectioners sugar, and rum. Plopped on top of a piece of rum pudding, it melts and is simply wonderful.
This is what some people refer to as plum pudding. It is a traditional steamed English Christmas pudding -- actually more like a very moist cake loaded with dried fruits. I have always served mine with hard sauce -- a concoction of unsalted butter, confectioners sugar, and rum. Plopped on top of a piece of rum pudding, it melts and is simply wonderful.
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 4 ounces shredded suet can also use a vegetarian suet
- 2 ounces self raising flour
- 4 ounces white breadcrumbs
- 1 large pinch ground cinnamon
- 8 ounces dark brown sugar
- 4 ounces sultanas (golden raisins)
- 4 ounces raisins
- 10 ounces currants
- 1 ounce ground almonds
- 1 small apple peeled, cored and finely chopped
- 1/2 large orange grated zest
- 1/2 large lemon grated zest
- 5 fluid oz stout
- 2 tablespoons rum
- Carbohydrate 40.845217039826 g
- Cholesterol 176.25 mg
- Fat 5.82835856570621 g
- Fiber 2.56720478919191 g
- Protein 7.69447125038227 g
- Saturated Fat 1.48586717601925 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (152g)
- Sodium 189.061550882114 mg
- Sugar 38.2780122506341 g
- Trans Fat 0.899607402037605 g
- Calories 242 calories
Step-by-step
- You will need a 2 pint pudding basin lightly greased. Also, be sure to weigh all the dry ingredients to arrive at the proper measurements. The dry measurement ounces are not the same as the ounces listed on the side of a measuring cup.
- Begin the day before you want to steam the pudding.
- In a very large mixing bowl put the suet, flour, breadcrumbs, spices and sugar. Mix well. Add the dried fruit and almonds. Mix well. Add the apple and grated orange and lemon zests.
- In a small bowl beat the 2 eggs and add the rum and the stout and beat together. Then add this to the big bowl of dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. It is now traditional for each member of the family to "stir" the pudding and make a wish. (Stirring from East and West is also traditional in honor of the Wise men.)
- The mixture should be fairly sloppy so if necessary add a little more stout.
- Cover and leave overnight.
- Next day, pack the mixture into the lightly greased basin, cover with a double sheet of greaseproof paper and a sheet of foil and tie it securely with a string. Place the pudding in a steamer and steam for 8 hours. Keep a regular watch on the water in the steamer in case it boils dry.
- Allow the pudding to get completely cold after cooking and then remove the foil and papers and replace with fresh ones. The pudding is now ready for Christmas Day. Keep it in a cool place but not the refrigerator.
- When you want to eat it, steam it again for 2 hours. You can heat it in the microwave but steaming it gives better results.
A list of dried fruit and sugar conceals the precise biochemical work occurring inside a steamed pudding basin. Suet melts slowly at lower temperatures than butter, rendering microscopic fat pockets throughout the crumb rather than creaming into air pockets. This network coats the flour proteins, limiting gluten development and yielding a dense, tender structure capable of supporting heavy proportions of currants, sultanas, and raisins. Stout and rum introduce moisture alongside organic acids that help break down pectin in the chopped apple. Resting the batter overnight permits dried fruit cells to rehydrate by drawing free liquid from the stout and eggs, equalizing moisture levels before thermal processing begins. Steaming for eight hours utilizes moist heat transfer, gelatinizing starches evenly without scorching the exterior sugars. Storing the cooked pudding in a cool pantry rather than a refrigerator allows slow chemical maturation, wherein residual alcohol and high sugar concentrations act as natural preservatives. When adapting this historic formula, processed vegetable suet functions as a direct one-to-one replacement for animal fat without altering the final texture.
