Christmas Pudding Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Can I use butter instead of suet in Christmas pudding? ›

If you or someone in your family is a vegetarian and doesn't want to eat suet, look for a recipe that uses butter or margarine instead, such as this recipe for individual Christmas puddings.

What better or more traditional way to finish off Christmas dinner than with a showstopping flaming Christmas pud? Brandy works wonderfully well and we've added more punch by infusing it with fantastically festive flavourings.

To prevent water from getting into the mixture, which would make the pudding soggy, make sure you secure the foil with string and fold the foil back over the string.

After the first 5 hours of steaming the puddings may not look that dark but do not worry as the colour deepens on the second steaming.

If you can't find suet or you just don't want to use it, try shortening instead. One of the advantages of using vegetable shortening is that it is suitable for vegetarian dishes. Before using it, freeze the shortening until it is very firm.

Sounds wonderful, but Isabel doesn't want to use suet. To remedy that, King Arthur Flour says vegetable shortening with its similar melting point is the best substitute, but using it will change the flavour and character of the pudding.

Once burning, the heat generated warms the liquid alcohol in the pudding, creating more vapour until eventually there is no more alcohol left to vapourise. At this point, the flame burns out and the pudding is left tasty and un-charred.

If wrapped properly, you can refrigerate the pudding for up to a year or more! If you want to give the pudding the second streaming, defrost the pudding at room temperature (20˚C) for 24 hours beforehand. While unrefrigerated, however, we would not suggest keeping the pudding out for more than 3 hours.

The uncooked Christmas pudding batter will keep for a short time before cooking. If unrefrigerated then we would suggest no longer than 3 hours.

Ideally we would suggest that when the pudding is made it is steamed for 8 hours (the combined time of the first and second steamings) as the steaming is important for the flavour of the pudding. The pudding can then be microwaved to reheat it on Christmas Day.

Can you cook a Christmas pudding in a Pyrex bowl? ›

As for all puddings, it should be stored in a cool, dry place until Christmas Day. For the US our preference would be to use Pyrex mixing bowls for steaming Christmas puddings.

The best tool for checking your Christmas pudding is perfectly cooked is an instant-read food thermometer like the Thermapen ONE.

Superstitions say that Christmas pudding must be prepared with 13 ingredients, which are said to represent Jesus and his twelve disciples. It is also said that the mixture should be stirred in turn from east to west, by each family member, to honour the disciples' journey.

While the pudding won't dry out if it's steamed for too long, some of the ingredients inside may be spoiled by being overcooked.

The essentials for the best puddings

Use a mixture of flour and breadcrumbs, not just flour. Though in older times the choice was more to do with economy, breadcrumbs give the pudding a much lighter texture. And again, use just enough flour to hold the mixture gently together.

Frozen butter: Use shredded frozen butter as an alternative to suet in pie crusts. It's important to note that butter has a lower melting point than suet and will melt much faster.

Mix the almonds, apples, candied peel, nutmeg, raisins, flour, breadcrumbs, light muscovado sugar, eggs and 2 tbsp brandy or cognac in a large bowl. Holding the butter in its wrapper, grate a quarter of it into the bowl, then stir everything together.

Both butter and cream function very similarly in pudding. They are both added for their fat.

The pudding recipe includes 13 elements – representing Jesus Christ and his 12 disciples. The ingredients are flour, mixed spices, animal suet, milk, eggs, brown sugar, bread crowns, raisins, currants, orange peel, lemon peel, and brandy.