Christmas Baking Recipes - Grannies Christmas Pudding

Today I want to share with you Grannies Christmas Pudding Recipe that we made last year on Stir Up Sunday and the one we used last Christmas and made on Stir Up Sunday which was on the 25th November 2012.

Stir Up Sunday is traditionally the day you make your Christmas Pudding, it is the last Sunday before the season of Advent and this year Stir Up Sunday was the 24th November and the day I started making our Christmas Pudding and Christmas Cake (I was late doing the cake, more on this years cake and pudding to follow)

Stir-up Sunday is an informal term in Anglican churches for the last Sunday before the season of Advent. The term comes from the opening words of the collect for the day in the Book of Common Prayer of 1549 and later (a translation of the Roman Missal's collect "Excita, quæsumus ", now used on the First Sunday of Advent)

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen

Ok history lesson over, in modern times Stir Up Sunday is the day to make your Christmas Pudding and for everyone in the family to take a turn at stirring the Christmas Pudding, whilst making a wish

Before Christmas puddings were sold ready-made in foil containers, they were always made at home. They were made a month before Christmas day so the flavors had plenty of time to develop before Christmas.

This recipe makes 3 puddings of different sizes, as we only needed one pudding for this Christmas, we only used a third of the recipe to make one medium pudding.

Traditional Christmas Pudding 

Ingredients*
4oz  Fresh Breadcrumbs

4oz  Plain Flour

1tsp Salt

#2tsp Mixed Spice (Is a traditional English Pudding Spice and can be made here see recipe)
4oz  Shredded Suet (as we couldn't find suet to buy in America so we used butter in it's place)

oz   Caster Sugar

8oz  Soft Brown or Demerara Sugar

8oz  Mixed Peel

12oz Currants

8oz   Sultanas

20oz Raisins

6oz  Chopped Almonds

8oz  Apples, peeled, cored and diced

1 Grated carrot

Grated Rind and Juice of 1 Lemon

Grated Rind and Juice of 1 Orange

3 Large Eggs, beaten

½Cup of Brandy or Whiskey or Rum or Sherry

¼pint Milk – approx.

* note - this recipes makes 3 puddings.
# Mixed Spice recipe - blend together the following - 1tbs of ground allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg, along with 2tsp of ground mace and 1tsp of ground cloves, coriander and ginger - store in an airtight jar. 

Directions
1. Mix together in a large mixing bowl all the dry ingredients, the almonds, apples, grated carrot, orange and lemon rind.
2. Mix the lemon and orange juice and the alcohol with the beaten eggs and add to the dry mixture.
3. Add enough milk to give a soft dropping consistency.
4. Cover the mixture with a clean tea towel and leave overnight.

5. Grease 1 Pyrex pudding basins – 1pt, 1½pt and 2pt and place a greaseproof paper disc in the bottom of each bowl to aid release.

6. Stir the mixture before turning it into the prepared basin. - make sure all the family have a stir

7. Cover with greaseproof paper and  with a clean dry cloth or foil.

8. Steam over rapidly boiling water in a suitable pan as follows:- 1pt Pudding 5 hours, 1&1/2 pt Pudding 7 hours and a 2pt Pudding needs 9 hours.

Or in a slow cooker on low for 8 hours with an inch or so of water in the bottom.
9. When the puddings are cooked, remove from pan or slow cooker 
10.Remove the cloth or foil but leave the paper in position.

11.Recover them with a fresh cloth or foil and store in a cool place.

On the day of serving steam the puddings as follows:- 1pt Pudding - 2 hours, 1&1/2 pt Pudding - 3 hours and 2pt Pudding - 3 hours

Turn out on to a hot dish and serve with Brandy or Rum butter or for Yorkshire folk Rum Sauce. (white sauce flavored with Rum)

Warning - Don’t put Aluminum  foil directly on to the pudding, as the fruit eats into it after some weeks; this does not harm the pudding but the foil ceases to be water tight.

All dry ingredients mixed together

Almonds added

Give it all a good thorough stir

As we couldn't find suet last year (you can now buy Atora Vegetable Suet from my favorite English shop Spencer's Jolly Posh) for our recipe here in America we used grated butter instead, and are hoping it is going to come out fine.

Alcohol and egg mixture ready to be added

And into the mixture it is added

Any alcohol is good in this recipe, there is no need to go and buy any especially, just use up what is in your liquor cupboard.

All stirred in

Once all the ingredients are stirred in, cover with a clean tea towel and leave overnight. The next day the pudding needs one more good stir.

One last stir by all the family

and into the prepared basin.

As our pudding was made on Stir Up Sunday, we all made sure we had a stir of the pudding before it was placed in the bowl for cooking -  a good tradition to do with your family too regardless of when you make your pudding.

Grannie preparing the pud for cooking

Slow Cooker Cooking

We cooked ours in the slow cooker the next day, which just so happened to be the day Grannie & Grandad where leaving, so we got the pudding into the slow cooker at lunchtime and left it for 8 hours, it was all nicely cooked by the time we came back from the airport.

I left the greaseproof paper on and re-wrapped the pudding in clean foil and stored it in a nice dark cool place to develop further ready for Christmas Day.

Oh and I have confession to make, I didn't make the Christmas Pudding, Mr C and Grannie did all the hard work, I just cooked it the next day. 

As we made this Christmas pudding last year, I can certainly say it was most delicious we enjoyed it immensely, the girls weren't keen on it, we'll try again this year with them. 

And we saved a portion of it to make Christmas Pudding Ice Cream - whoops must get on to that.....