Christmas Pudding with Morgan’s Spiced Rum
Righty ho, then, so tomorrow is Stir-up Sunday, which gives me carte blanche to get all Christmassy even though it’s still not December. Bonus.
Today, your mission, should you wish to accept it, is to make sure you have the following ingredients to make your Christmas puds tomorrow, or whenever. I won’t be checking or anything.
As usual with this sort of thing, this recipe is just a guide, it’s not set in stone, so if there’s something you don’t like, substitute something else. So if you don’t like alcohol, for example, you can use orange juice, or cranberry juice, or more tea. And I’d rather stick needles in my eyes than eat dried peel, but if you like it, bung some in. As long as you don’t mess with the quantities too much you’ll be fine. Here goes, then:
500g dried fruit (a mixture of raisins, sultanas, de-stoned ready to eat prunes, cranberries – whatever – as long they’re small and wrinkly, chuck ‘em in)
1 tbsp Maraschino cherries, halved (optional, but it’s nice to see a little glistening bit of red when you cut it open)
1 lemon
100ml black tea (I used Earl Grey)
100ml Morgan’s Spiced Rum (or whatever booze you like), plus extra for the cook
1 cinnamon stick, snapped in half
100g self raising flour (or rice flour for gluten free – thank you to my lovely Twittermate Pippa D for this)
100g fresh white breadcrumbs (or ground almonds if you need to keep the recipe gluten free)
150g veggie suet
150g dark muscovado sugar
25g almonds or pistachio nuts, chopped
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground mixed spice
3 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp black treacle
1 Bramley apple, grated
First, then, weigh out the fruit, then have a good look through it and remove any stray stems. If you’re using prunes, make sure they’re de-stoned and snipped into little pieces. Finely grate the lemon zest (as usual, don’t push too hard – you want to avoid the bitter pith), then juice it as well. Add the zest and juice to the fruit then brew up the tea (one tea bag is fine for that amount of water) and pour it over the fruit, along with the rum and the cherries. Add the cinnamon stick and stir it all up. Leave the whole shooting match to steep (make sure it’s not a metal bowl) overnight, stirring occasionally if you remember.
The next day, then, (stay with me here) weigh out all the dry ingredients and combine them in a huge bowl. The muscovado sugar can be a bit lumpy so you might need to sieve it to break up any lumps.
Take the steeped fruit and remove the cinnamon stick pieces. Add the eggs, honey, treacle and grated apple. Stir well, then you can add all that into the dry ingredients. Give it a really good stir (get everyone to take a turn to stir and make a wish). Now butter one of those big, lidded plastic basins (3 pint/1.7 litre) and bung in your mixture. Put on the lid, then cover it in foil. If your basin doesn’t have a lid you’ll need to use buttered greaseproof paper, then foil, then tie it tightly with string (or you can tie it in a muslin, or use one of those special circular moulds).
To steam it, you can use a steamer if you’re posh, but I haven’t got one so I just used a huge saucepan and balanced the basin inside it on a circular metal pastry cutter so it wasn’t sitting on the bottom of the pan. Add boiling water about halfway up the basin and put the lid on the saucepan. Steam for 5 hours, making sure you go back every so often to top up the boiling water.
And that’s it, you’re done. Let it cool then stash it away (don’t unwrap it!) for Christmas day when it’ll need to steam for about another 2.5 to 3 hours (don’t worry if it gets a bit longer, it won’t ruin it).
BTW: If you want to make mini puddings instead, remember to put a teeny piece of buttered greaseproof paper in the bottom of your ramekin, otherwise you’ll never get the buggers out. Then you can just cover them with foil, put them on a deep baking tray, add boiling water to half way up the sides of the ramekins, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes on 180/gas 4.
BTW 2: Nigella advocates vodka rather than brandy to flame a pudding – apparently the flame is better and lasts longer. Just mind your eyebrows
Off you trot then. Give everybody a stir, let them make a wish, and then make them do the washing up. You deserve a break.
35 Responses to “Christmas Pudding with Morgan’s Spiced Rum”
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It was so good, I am feeling tempted to make another one for later next month!
Last time I was at home, Mum decided to cook one of her steak and kidney puddings. She makes them in advance and then freezes them. Well, to cut a long story short, when she unwrapped it, lo and behold, a Christmas pudding. Didn’t go so well with the gravy and the peas.
(I’m using negativity as a way of covering up my hurt and sadness over you leaving me)
LOL! x
But if I did, this would be the recipe.
Yum.
If I weren’t so damned brassic I’d be buying all the ingredients to make this too.
How much cashg do ya think I’d get for the husband?
Where are you gonna be for my visit ? I was thinking the Monday or Tuesday.. the 7-8th