Christmas Pudding Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Why do you have to boil Christmas pudding for so long? ›

Most Christmas puddings are made with suet (shredded beef fat) and this tends to take longer to melt than butter, so the pudding needs a long cooking time to make sure that the fat has melted and combined properly with the other ingredients.

Brandy works wonderfully well and we've added more punch by infusing it with fantastically festive flavourings.

It's best not to. Suet is a very hard fat, which melts slowly through a mixture during the cooking, whereas butter melts very easily and quickly through a mixture. They are different types of fats and shouldn't be substituted for each other.

For a long time it's been common practice to include silver Christmas pudding coins, charms or tokens into Christmas pudding. Finding a Christmas coin in your slice of pudding is believed to bring good luck and especially wealth in the coming year.

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.

Don't cover when it's still hot. Do not cover when the pudding is still hot, but should be covered when the pudding has cooled. This is to avoid the presence of steam which makes the pudding runny.

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. Not too many eggs, and more egg yolk that white if you can.

Beef fat (from the butchers) or lard (available in supermarkets) make acceptable substitutes.

To test if the pudding's cooked, pierce the foil and paper with a skewer and wiggle it to make the hole bigger, or it will be wiped clean of any mixture when you pull it out.

The pudding should be stored in a cool, dark and dry place. If the pudding is in a warm and humid environment (such as a steamy kitchen) then there is a risk that some mould will develop on the pudding. If you live in a warm or humid climate then it may be better to store the pudding in the fridge or to freeze it.

Can Crisco replace suet? ›

It is possible to make Nigella's Ultimate Christmas Pudding using vegetable shortening (such as Crisco, Trex, Flora White, Cookeen or Copha) instead of suet (which is made from beef fat). You use exactly the same quantity in vegetable shortening but it needs to be coarsely grated before you use it.

Some Christmas puddings, made with dried fruit in the traditional way, are fine to be eaten as much as two years after they were made. "Bear in mind if the pudding is alcohol-free, of course, it will last a good while with the sugar content, but it will not last as long without alcohol to preserve it," stresses Juliet.

It is key that every member of the family gives the pudding mixture a stir and makes a wish at the same time. Traditionally, a silver sixpence was stirred in to bring whoever found the coin on Christmas Day wealth and good luck in the year to come.

Christmas Pudding (also known as plum pudding or figgy pudding) is a dish as famous as it is misunderstood.

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.

However, they're often just whacked in on 'high' for a few minutes until they look cooked. “Quite frankly, overcooking Christmas puddings kills the flavour, and that's a shame after all the effort and wonderful ingredients I've put into it!

Cooked Pudding Mix

Place the saucepan on the stove top over low to medium heat. Stir the pudding constantly while bringing the mixture to a low boil. After 1 minute of boiling, remove the saucepan from the heat. Stir again and carefully pour the hot pudding into glasses or a pie crust.

It definitely can't be eaten uncooked, but, once cooked and cooled, you can eat any leftover Christmas pudding cold.

In their original form they were made of a variety of chopped meats, usually mutton or beef, with vegetables and fruits. Its liquid consistency allowed the pudding to be boiled in a cloth, to create a firm and filling pudding. Eventually the vegetables fell away, but the fruits remained.