Boiled Christmas Pudding
Nana's traditional boiled Christmas pudding recipe.
Servings: 50 servings
Calories: 118kcal
Ingredients
- 175 grams butter
- 175 grams brown sugar
- 4 medium eggs
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 60 grams mixed peel
- 230 grams currants
- 230 grams sultanas
- 125 grams raisins
- 125 grams glace cherries
- 50 grams slivered almonds
- 125 grams plain flour
- ⅓ cup plain flour (extra for pudding cloth)
- pinch salt
- ½ teaspoon bicarb soda
- ½ teaspoon mixed spice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
- 3 tablespoons brandy
Instructions
Pudding mixture
- Beat butter and sugar on med-high in a stand mixer for 5 minutes or until a pale colour.
- Beat eggs and then add to mixture one at a time, beating further after each addition.
- Add sifted flour, salt, bicarb soda and mixed spice. Beat on low speed until combined.
- Add bread crumbs, dried fruit and almonds and stir with a spoon to combine.
- Add vanilla and brandy and stir again to combine.
Boiling pudding
- Prepare a large boiler or saucepan by filling ⅔ - ¾ with water. You want enough room for the pudding to be able to move around in the water as it's cooking. Put on the stove and bring water to boil.
- Soak a clean calico pudding cloth in another bowl of boiling water from the kettle for 5 minutes.
- Wring out excess water (you may need gloves or use a clean tea towel wrapped around the pudding cloth) and spread out pudding cloth on kitchen bench.
- Use about ⅓ cup plain flour and sprinkle in a 30-40cm diameter circle. Make sure flour is most concentrated towards centre and lighter towards the outside of the circle. Rub flour into the cloth.
- Pour pudding mixture onto centre of cloth. Pull the edges up and work into a nice round shape. Make sure there is no gap at the top where you've gathered the edges together.
- Secure the gathered edges as close to the pudding as possible with kitchen string. Secure well and make sure there's a loop so you can hand the pudding to dry out once it's cooked.
- Place pudding in boiling water and boil for 3 ½ hours. Make sure the water continues to boil and you keep it topped up with additional water if necessary. (Boil a kettle and add boiling water rather than cold water from the tap to ensure a continuous boil.)
- Once cooked, hook string from where you've secured the pudding cloth into a wooden spoon and gently lift from the boiling water.
- Hold over the sink or somewhere that the pudding can drip a little. Within a minute or so you should see the pudding cloth drying in spots.
- Hang the pudding somewhere safe and dry for one day to cool and dry out.
- After a day of drying out, take the pudding down. Cut open the ties and take a look at the top of the pudding. You should see a skin has formed around the pudding. Scrape away any excess flour from the top of calico pudding cloth and tie to secure again.
- Leave the pudding out (no need to hang again) in a dry place for a couple of days to dry out completely.
- Store pudding in fridge (still in cloth) until ready to be re-heated.
- To re-heat, take out of fridge and leave to stand for 6-12 hours. Immerse in a pot of boiling water for 1 hour and then hang for half an hour before cutting away ties and gently unwrapping the pudding. Invert onto a serving plate and enjoy with custard.
Nutrition
Calories: 118kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 21mg | Sodium: 61mg | Potassium: 122mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 110IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 20mg | Iron: 1mg