Mum's Christmas pudding

Mum's Christmas pudding

Good Food reader Christine Ford shares her late mum's Christmas pudding recipe - the ideal last-minute option as it doesn't need to mature to taste really good

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Makes 1 x 2L/3.5 pint and 1 x 1L/1.75 pint pudding

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 10 mins

Cook time

Cook 3 hrs 30 mins

Method

  1. Place all the ingredients, except the eggs, treacle and lemon and orange juice, into your largest bowl with 1 tsp salt, then mix. Add the remaining ingredients along with 700ml water, then mix to a consistency that drops off your spoon. Cover and leave in a cool place overnight. The mixture will become firm.
  2. The next day, add enough water to bring the mix back to a dropping consistency, then spoon into greased pudding basins - we used a 2 litre and a 1 litre. Cover with pleated greaseproof paper and foil, and secure with string.
  3. Lower the puddings into a saucepan with upturned saucers or scrunched-up bits of foil in the bottom (so the puds don't touch the bottom), then fill with boiling water from the kettle until it comes halfway up the sides of the bowl. Simmer the smaller pudding for 2-2½ hrs and the larger one for 3-3½ hrs. Cool, wrap well in foil and chill for up to 3 days.

PER SERVING

429 kcalories, protein 6g, carbohydrate 81g, fat 11 g, saturated fat 4g, fibre 2g, sugar 54g, salt 1.26 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, January 2011.

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Latest comments and suggestions

  • 04 January 2012

    Kila rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    I don't ususally like christmas pudding but I made this for christmas and it was really nice, light and not too rich. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

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  • 14 November 2012

    Lucy rated and commented on this recipe

    1 stars

    Having never made a Christmas pudding before this seemed like an easy recipe. I followed it exactly but could not fathom out why the puddings all came out extremely light in colour. They did not look appetising. After searching lots of other recipes it appears that the additional 700ml water ingredient could be the reason. I even noted from a tips and tricks website that by steaming longer the colour becomes darker but after boiling for an additional 3 hours the colour remained the same. I would say try this without the water but I am certainly binning my first lot and starting again but with another recipe.

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  • 21 November 2012

    Christine commented on this recipe

    I am really sorry Lucy to read your comments about this pudding. Yes it is lighter because the mix doesn't have lots of treacle or any alchohol and that is what makes it different and delicious. It doesn't look like many other puddings ie very dark and sometimes almost black, but the taste is absolutely delicious. Even those people who say they don't like Christmas Pudding are hooked by this recipe. Steaming it for longer won't make it any darker in fact it could spoiil the light texture of the pudding altogether. Hope you'll give it another try.

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  • 12 December 2012

    Giddy commented on this recipe

    Can you please tell me what you do with the pudding on Christmas day to heat it?

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  • 14 December 2012

    MarthaMyDear commented on this recipe

    Hello Giddy...I usually re-steam the pudding for few hours on day I'm ready to serve. Some people use a microwave to reheat, but I don't like the sound of that. :D

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Makes 1 x 2L/3.5 pint and 1 x 1L/1.75 pint pudding

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 10 mins

Cook time

Cook 3 hrs 30 mins

Ingredients

  • 450g white breadcrumbs
  • 350g golden caster sugar
  • 225g vegetarian suet
  • 100g self-raising flour
  • 50g almonds , roughly chopped
  • 225g currants
  • 225g sultanas
  • 225g raisins
  • 175g mixed peel
  • 1 tsp each mixed spice , ground ginger and grated nutmeg
  • 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbsp treacle
  • zest and juice 1 lemon
  • zest and juice 1 orange
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PER SERVING

429 kcalories, protein 6g, carbohydrate 81g, fat 11 g, saturated fat 4g, fibre 2g, sugar 54g, salt 1.26 g

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