The Christmas Puddings

At I type, there is a lovely spicy, Christmassy smell wafting through my flat. Yes, it is that time of year again - I can hardly believe it. Black treacle, sherry, dried fruit, prunes soaked in Port, dark Oxford marmalade, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange zest and dark muscovado sugar - just a few of the heavenly ingredients I've been playing with this afternoon!

In an ideal world, I'd have made my Christmas pudding a month-or-so ago, but I didn't get around to it. I'm not too concerned thought - I had a look back through the archives and found that I'm ahead of last year.

For those who've never made their own Christmas pudding before, I urge you to give it a go. Homemade really is best and it is really quite a simple thing to make. Sure, there are a lot of ingredients but method-wise, all that is needed is a some gentle stirring. Hardly taxing. Perhaps the one tricky factor is that amount of time the puds take to steam - I do mine for 6-8 hours. It might sound like a long time, but it has always worked for me. So, unless you are braver than I, you'll need to stay in for that length of time. I have in the past, steamed the puds overnight but today I thought I'd enjoy spending a day just quietly pottering about at home whilst the puds steam quietly away.

If the mention of steaming is putting you off, please read on. You don't need any kind of fancy equipment to make this pudding! I just do mine in a large lidded saucepan, standing on an upturned saucer. Works a treat.


This is a picture of last year's pudding - a dreadful shot in which I resorted to the flash. Always a mistake. We also appear to have forgotten the customary sprig of holly which is a shame. At least we had it on the obligatory festive-themed plate.

This year, I followed my tried-and-trusted recipe which has never yet failed me. The only thing I did differently this year was to soak the fruit overnight in Pedro Ximenez sherry. Nigella suggests this in her new Christmas book. I happened to have some to hand and so it all made perfect sense.

I don't plan to repeat the recipe here, you can find it in last year's post. One of the great things about food blogging, I find, is that you have a permanent online source of your own favourite recipes. When hunting for the ragged bit of paper that is home to this recipe I was dismayed when I couldn't locate it. Thank goodness I posted it last Christmas!

As usual, I've made one large pudding (for my family) and one small pud that I'll probably give away as a present. All I have to do is decide upon the lucky recipient!

I can't wait to sample the pudding on Christmas Day with a generous dollop of brandy butter, flecked with orange zest. How do you like to eat yours?