Christmas Plum Pudding
We love christmas pudding. I make mine in october, and give many away as gifts. I make several sizes, and try to keep about 3 for us-one for christmas, another for new year, and the last for around easter. I find it very satisfying to make these, though i can hardly wait to eat the first one! This recipe is a combination of 2 favourites and works well. If you don't want to use the stout and brandy, use orange juice as one of the recipes suggested-i think the stout and brandy give the recipe depth of flavour.
Steps
Grease 2 large pudding basins.
Bring two large saucepans of water to the boil with a trivet or rack in the bottom of each.
Mix all dry ingredients together.
Rub butter into dry ingredients with your finger.
Mix egg , milk , stout , brandy and rinds together.
Mix the moist and dry ingredients together.
Place mixture in basins , allowing a little room at the top of the basins for the puddings to swell.
Cover with greasproof paper , then two thicknesses of aluminum foil.
Tie securely with string.
Place the puddings into the prepared saucepans-- water should reach halfway up them-- and boil steadily for 5 hours.
As the water boils away replace with more boiling water.
On the day the pudding is to be served , boil for 1 hour mmore.
Serve with cream , icecream , custard or brandy sauce.
Last year , i discovered it works fine just to microwave individual slices rather than reheating for 1 hour.
We also love the leftovers cold or re-fried in butter !.
Ingredients
sultanas, raisins, prune, mixed peel, lemon, zest of, orange zest, blanched almond, carrot, butter, white breadcrumbs, brown sugar, plain flour, salt, nutmeg, mixed spice, eggs, milk, stout beer, brandy