The clementines are ripe, the sleigh bells are jingling and watching Elf is inevitable. That can only mean December is upon us. We've captured the taste of a classic Christmas in our Ultimate Christmas Pudding recipe. In case you were wondering - serve with lashings of ice cream!
A little softened butter, for greasing
225g caster sugar
200g suet
300g currants
300g raisins
300g citrus peel
100g glace cherries
75g pistachios, roughly chopped
110g plain flour
110g fresh white breadcrumbs
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. mixed spice
Zest from 1 lemon
5 eggs, lightly beaten
50ml whisky
100ml Cointreau
3 tbsp. apricot jam, melted
Zest of 1 clementine
A handful of toasted almonds, pecan nuts and glace cherries
Lightly grease a 1.2 litre pudding basin with softened butter and cut a small circle of parchment to place in the base of the pudding bowl.
Combine the sugar, suet, currants, raisins, citrus peel, cherries, pistachio, plain flour, breadcrumbs, spices and lemon zest in a very large mixing bowl.
Add the eggs, whisky and Cointreau and stir all the ingredients together until well distributed and spoon the wet mixture into the pudding basin, pressing the mixture down with the back of a spatula. Place a round of baking parchment over the top of the mixture and then wrap with a layer of foil so that the basin is watertight. Secure with string.
Either put the basin in the pan of boiling water, to come halfway up the sides or in the top of a lidded steamer and steam for 6 hours, checking every so often that the water is topped up.
Cool your pudding and store, re - wrapped in foil for 6 weeks, until the big Christmas day.
Once ready to re-heat, steam the wrapped pudding – still in it’s basin - for a further 3 hours. To serve, remove from the basin and brush with warmed apricot jam. Decorate with cherries, nuts and clementine and serve, with a side of ice cream (Hot Toddy works exceptionally well!)
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