Dark chocolate and cherry Christmas pudding

Morning all! If you’re a regular, you’ll know this weekend coming is one of my favourites of the year because it’s Stir-up Sunday! For me, it’s a weekend full of all the things I absolutely love: I’m never happier than when I’m pottering in the kitchen, but add in the fact that this recipe fills the whole house full of gorgeous, Christmassy orange and spice scents and it’s an absolute winner. If you fancy making your own Christmas puddings this year, I’ve added the ingredients list nice and early so you can make sure you have everything ready. Do remember that this is a two-step recipe as I steeping the fruit overnight – you could just start really early on Sunday but remember that steaming the pudding takes about five hours. This year, I’m embracing two of my absolute favourite flavours with a dark chocolate and cherry Christmas pudding. It’s not overwhelmingly chocolatey, but the chocolate just adds an extra depth and bittersweet flavour, and the cherries add a pop of colour and sweetness too.

Dark chocolate and cherry Christmas pudding ingredients

A quick note about ingredients:

As I always say, as long as you stick to the basic quantities, you can use more or less whatever dried fruit you like. I hate dried peel (did you know it’s made from the devil’s toenail clippings?) but add it if you want, you crazy person. Also, I’ve kept it simple with whole small dried fruit, but if you fancy adding larger fruit like dried apricots, figs or prunes, just make sure they’re stoneless and snipped into small pieces. I use self raising flour because I’m lazy. If you only have plain, remember to add a teaspoon of baking powder. With the booze, I’m using cherry brandy to echo the cherry flavour, but feel free to use sherry, brandy, whisky or whatever else you have. Oh, and don’t forget you’ll need a pudding basin - something like this is perfect, along with some baking paper, foil and string.

Vegan Christmas pudding - another quick note:

If you want to make this Christmas pudding vegan, just substitute your favourite plant based spread, or coconut oil, for the butter, use vegan chocolate, and use a pureéd Bramley apple (or no-egg substitute) for the eggs. If you don’t eat honey, maple syrup or vegan chocolate syrup will do the trick.

Dark chocolate and cherry Christmas pudding

Makes one large, or two small puddings

Day one:

500g dried fruit
200g frozen cherries
1 orange, juice and zest
100ml black tea
100ml cherry brandy
1 cinnamon stick

Dark chocolate and cherry Christmas pudding - day one ingredients: steeping the fruit

Day two:

Wet ingredients:

3 large free range eggs
100g dark chocolate, melted
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp black treacle
2 firm conference pears, grated

Dry ingredients:

100g self raising flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
100g fresh white breadcrumbs
150g veggie suet

150g dark muscovado sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp mixed spice

Dark chocolate and cherry Christmas pudding - day two ingredients

You will also need:

1 large pudding basin (I use an enamel 3 pint/18cm diameter basin) or 2 smaller ones
Butter
String
Tin foil
Greaseproof paper or baking parchment

Day 1 – steeping the fruit

So firstly, weigh out all the dried fruit, then pick up little handfuls and let it fall through your fingers, looking out for any woody stems, which are unpleasant to crunch on. Place it all in a large non-metal mixing bowl. Add in the frozen cherries (I got mine from Aldi), zest and juice the orange (or clementine or whatever), and add that in to the fruit as well as the tea (I use Lady Grey as it has orangey notes), cherry brandy and the cinnamon stick (snap that in half). Stir it all together and inhale all the gorgeous Christmassy scents, then cover with a tea towel and just allow it to steep overnight, or at least a few hours, stirring occasionally if you remember.

Stir the steeped fruit every so often if you remember

Day 2

Firstly, remember to remove the cinnamon stick. Sort the wet ingredients first: beat the eggs and stir them into the fruit mixture along with the melted chocolate, honey, treacle, and grated pears (you could use apple here but I feel pear goes better with the chocolate).

Then, weigh out all the dry ingredients and combine them in a huge bowl. The muscovado sugar can be a bit lumpy so run it through your fingers and disperse any lumps.

Add the dry ingredients and give it a really good stir (get everyone to take a turn to stir and make a wish).

Wrapping the Christmas pudding ready for steaming

Wrapping and storing your pudding

Butter your pudding basin(s) and spoon in the mixture. I pop a little circle of non-stick greaseproof paper on top of the pudding mixture. Then, lay out a piece of foil on a flat surface, slightly larger than the top of the basin, and lay a piece of non-stick greaseproof (baking) paper over that. Fold a pleat into the middle of the two layers. Butter the greaseproof paper, then put that side down onto the top of the pudding. Press down the edges well. Now for my top tip: use a couple of sturdy elastic bands to go round the top – it will keep the seal really tight. I tie over the top of the bands with string just in case they break, and I also fashion myself a little handle across the top to make it easy to lift the pudding out. You can also just use a plastic pudding basin with a lid, but I always feel weird about heating plastic for such a long period of time with my food in it.

The wrapped Christmas pud ready for steaming

How long do you need to steam a Christmas pudding for?

A Christmas pudding this size needs eight full hours of steaming. Usually, I steam it for five hours on the day I make it, then another three hours on Christmas Day.

If you’ve divided this down into two smaller puddings, these will need six full hours of steaming. So, three hours on the day you make it, and another three hours on Christmas Day.

Remember, though, you could also steam it for the full 8 hours (six hours for smaller puds) when you make it, then just microwave it on Christmas Day. You could also do 5 hours when you make it, three hours on, say, Christmas Eve, then again just reheat in the microwave on the day.

Either use a steamer, or just use a huge saucepan. Place an old saucer or something heatproof (even a flat, clean stone will do) in the bottom so it’s not sitting on the bottom of the pan (this will also stop it burning if you inadvertently let it boil dry). 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.

Let the pudding cool then store in a cool, dry place (don’t unwrap it!) for Christmas day when it will 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).

When it comes to flaming your pudding on the day, carefully warm some vodka (I know, contentious) in a ladle over a low heat, then set it alight and pour over your pudding. Be especially careful if you want to dramatically walk into the room with your flaming pudding (I say this from bitter experience). Finally dollop on your preferred topping – we like brandy cream, but go with what you love.

Flaming the pudding

By the way, if you’d prefer to just make a standard Christmas pudding, you can find my recipe here.