Angela and Sarah’s Stir-up Method
Serves: 8-10 CUPS
- 1¼ cups currants
- 1 cup golden raisins
- 1 cup roughly chopped pitted prunes
- ¾ cup pedro ximenez sherry (really would try to get this sherry, it’s a little pricy but well worth it )
- ⅔ cup all-purpose flour
- 2⅓ cups fresh breadcrumbs
- 14 tablespoons coarsely grated vegetable shortening (freeze overnight to make it easier to grate)
- ¾ cup dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- grated zest of 1 lemon
- 3 large eggs
- 1 medium apple (peeled and grated)
- 2 tablespoons honey
- ½ cup vodka (to flame the pudding)
METHOD
You will need a 1.7 litre/3 pint/1½ quart heatproof plastic pudding basin with a lid, and also a sprig of holly to decorate.
- Put the currants, golden raisins and scissored pitted prunes into a bowl with the Pedro Ximénez, swill the bowl a bit, then cover with clingfilm and leave to steep overnight or for up to 1 week. The prunes should be cut in half.
- Grease your heatproof plastic pudding basin (or basins) with butter, remembering to grease the lid, too.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all the remaining pudding ingredients (except the vodka), with a big spoon and once all the fruit is in – Make a Wish! Who stirs it probably won’t affect the outcome of your wishes or your Christmas!
- Add the steeped fruits, scraping in every last drop of liquor with a rubber spatula, and mix to combine thoroughly, then fold in cola-cleaned coins or heirloom charms. (If you are at all frightened about someone choking, do leave out the hardware but sixpences or charms in Christmas puddings is a long-standing tradition and it would be a shame to miss out on the delight of discovering a prize.)
- Scrape and press the mixture into the prepared pudding basin, squish it down and put on the lid. Wrap in tin foil (we didn’t do this bit but it’s an extra precaution that’s a good idea.) Then cover with two layers of thick cheese cloth and a layer of greaseproof paper (parchment) and tie tightly with twine/string. Make a handle across the pudding with the string as shown in the photo below..
- When it’s time for you to do the 4-hours pre-cook, ensure the basin is watertight, then either put the basin in the pan of boiling water (to come halfway up the basin) or in the top of a lidded steamer (this size of basin happens to fit perfectly in the top of my all-purpose pot) and steam for 5 hours, I do 4 hours checking every now and again that the water hasn’t bubbled away.
- When it’s had its 4 hours, remove gingerly (you don’t want to burn yourself) and, when manageable, unwrap the foil, and put the pudding in its basin somewhere out of the way in the kitchen or, if you’re lucky enough, a larder, until Christmas Day. I also prick the parchment/cheesecloth covering with a needle and keep pouring sherry, brandy or whatever your taste, it takes a long time to seep through but worth it!
- On the big day, rewrap the pudding (still in its basin) in foil and steam again, this time for 4 hours. Eight hours combined cooking time might seem a faff, but it’s not as if you need to do anything to it in that time.
- To serve, remove from the pan or steamer, take off the lid, put a plate on top, turn it upside down and give the plastic basin a little squeeze to help unmould the pudding. Then remove the basin – and voilà, the Massively Matriarchal Mono Mammary is revealed. (Did I forget to mention the Freudian lure of the pudding beyond its pagan and Christian heritage?)
- Put the sprig of holly on top of the dark, mutely gleaming pudding, then heat the vodka or brandy in a small pan (I use my tiny, diddy copper butter-melting pan). Lydia mentioned putting the brandy into the egg shell and placing it into the top of the pudding, I also serve with hard sauce or Brandy Butter: butter, caster sugar and brandy mixed together and frozen! Yum!
- Then the minute it’s hot, but before it boils – you don’t want the alcohol to burn off before you attempt to flambé it – turn off the heat, strike a match, stand back and light the pan of vodka, then pour the flaming vodka over the pudding and take it as fast as you safely can to your guests. If it feels less dangerous to you (I am a liability and you might well be wiser not to follow my devil-may-care instructions), pour the hot vodka over the pudding and then light the pudding. In either case, don’t worry if the holly catches alight; I have never known it to be anything but singed.
- Serve with the Eggnog Cream, which you can easily make – it’s the work of undemanding moments – while the pudding’s steaming.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Although I stipulate a capacious 1.7 litre/3 pint/1½ quart basin, and cannot extol the utter gloriousness of this pud too much, I know that you’re unlikely to get through most of it, even half of it, at one sitting. But I like the grand, pride instilling size of this, plus it’s wonderful on following days, microwaved in portions after or between meals, with leftover Eggnog Cream, or fried in butter and eaten with vanilla ice cream for completely off-the-chart, midnight-munchy feasts.
But it wouldn’t be out of the question – and it would certainly be in the spirit of the season – to make up the entire quantity of mixture, and share between smaller basins – a 2 pint/1 quart one for you, a 1 pint/½ quart one to give away. Three hours’ steaming both first and second time around should do it; just keep the one pudding for yourself, and give the other to a friend, after it’s had its first steaming, and is cool, with the steaming instructions for Christmas Day.
MAKE AHEAD TIP: Make the Christmas pudding up to 6 weeks ahead. Keep in a cool, dark place, then proceed as recipe on Christmas Day. FREEZE AHEAD TIP: Make and freeze the Christmas pudding for up to 1 year ahead. Thaw overnight at room temperature and proceed as recipe on Christmas Day.
I think this picture shows how we wrapped the string around the basin.
Daughters of the British Empire 