HerEmeraldEyes
Posts: 51
Joined: 7/26/2006
From: Joliet, IL
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(description paraphrased from Wikipedia Christmas pudding is the dessert traditionally served on Christmas day in Britan and Ireland. It has its origins in England and is sometimes known as plum pudding or figgie pudding though this can also refer to other kinds of boiled pudding involving a lot of dried fruit. Many households have their own recipe for Christmas pudding, often handed down the family.
Christmas pudding is a steamed pudding, heavy with dried fruit and nuts, and often made with suet. It is very dark in appearance - effectively black - and moist with brandy and other alcohol. Christmas pudding is traditionally decorated with a spray of holly, and it may be doused in brandy, flamed (or 'fired'), and brought to the table ceremonially - where it may be greeted with a round of applause. In some houses the lights are turned out as the pudding is brought in amid a halo of purple brandy flames (this is related to the Christmas tradition of snap-dragons). It can be eaten with hard sauce, brandy butter, rum butter, [[cream (food)|cream], lemon cream, or custard and is often sprinkled with caster sugar (the fall of the sugar on triangular slices resembling the fall of snow on a pitched roof, or snowy mountain tops).
Below is my favorite recipe for christmas pudding. My favorite pudding is boiled.
first make the fruit mixture
Basic fruit mixture
Cooking time: More than 1 hour
Three-in-one mix
The mixture can be up to a week ahead.
Stir the ingredients occasionally.
Store in a cool dark place; the refrigerator is ideal.
INGREDIENTS
1kg (6 ½ cups) sultanas
375g (2¼ cups) currants
500g (3 cups) raisins, chopped
375g (2 ¼ cups) dates, chopped
375g (2 ¼ cups) dried prunes, chopped
250g (1 ½ cups) red glace cherries, quartered
125g (2/3 cup) mixed peel
2 medium (300g) apples, peeled, grated coarsely
250g jar (2/3 cup) fig jam
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
¼ cup (60ml) lemon juice
2 cups (400g) firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon mixed spice
1 ⅓ cups (330ml) Irish Whiskey
METHOD
Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix to combine thoroughly. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Stand in a cool dark place overnight or up to a week.
Rich Irish Christmas pudding
Serving size: Serves 10 or more
Cooking time: More than 1 hour
This recipe makes one large pudding using either the steamed or boiled cooking methods.
INGREDIENTS
¼ quantity of the above fruit mixture
250g (4 cups) butter, melted , cooled
3 eggs, beaten lightly
250g (4 cups) lightly packed stale (not dry) breadcrumbs
½ cup plain flour (for steamed pudding)
¼ cup plain flour (for boiled pudding)
METHOD
Place the fruit mixture in a large bowl, add the butter, eggs, breadcrumbs and sifted flour; mix thoroughly.
Steamed Pudding
1.Grease a 2-litre (eight-cup capacity) pudding steamer and line the base with a round of baking paper.
2. Spoon the mixture into the steamer, top with pleated baking paper and foil, secure with string or a lid.
3.Place the pudding in a large saucepan with enough boiling water to come halfway up the side of the steamer. Cover the saucepan with a tight-fitting lid and boil for 6 hours. Replenish with boiling water as needed to maintain the water level. Stand the pudding for 20 minutes before turning out.
Boiled Pudding
1.You will need a 60cm square piece of unbleached calico. If the cloth is new, soak it in cold water overnight. Next day boil the cloth for 20 minutes, rinse.
2. Have ready a large saucepan three-quarters full of rapidly boiling water, 2.5m of kitchen string and ¢ cup (75g) plain flour.
3.Drop the prepared pudding cloth in boiling water, boil one minute. Wearing rubber gloves, squeeze water from cloth. Spread the hot cloth on the bench, rub the plain flour into the centre of the cloth to cover a 40cm area, leaving the flour thicker in the centre where the "skin" will need to be thickest.
4. Place pudding mixture in centre of cloth, gather cloth evenly around the pudding. Pat into a round shape. Tie cloth tightly with string close to the mixture. Tie a loop in the string to make the pudding easy to handle. Pull ends tightly to make pudding as round as possible.
5. Lower the pudding into boiling water, cover with a tight-fitting lid, boil rapidly for six hours. Replenish with boiling water as needed to maintain the water level.
6. Place handle of a wooden spoon through the loop of string, lift pudding from water. Place pudding in a bowl or colander, cut string and peel back cloth a little. Invert onto a plate then slowly peel cloth back completely; cool. (It is important to remove the cloth while the pudding is hot, to prevent the skin sticking to the cloth. We prefer to remove the cloth for storage to prevent mould forming.)
To store puddings:
Wrap in plastic wrap or put in a freezer bag or airtight container, refrigerate up to three months or freeze for up to one year.
To reheat puddings:
Thaw frozen puddings for two days in the refrigerator. Remove the pudding from the refrigerator 12 hours before reheating.
Steamed: Remove the plastic wrap and return to the steamer. Steam for 2 hours following the cooking instructions.
Boiled: Remove the plastic wrap and tie a clean dry unfloured cloth on the pudding. Boil for two hours following the cooking instructions.
Microwave: Reheat four single serves at once. Cover with microwave-safe plastic wrap; microwave on HIGH (100%) for up to one minutes per serve. To reheat the whole pudding, cover with microwave-safe plastic wrap, microwave on MEDIUM (50%) for about 15 minutes or until hot.
**if you have good luck with the recipe let me know - I have been making it for years but few people i know have been brave enough to try it.
< Message edited by HerEmeraldEyes -- 12/15/2006 3:11:45 PM >
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What is the real meaning of CHristmas? - 
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