Delicious Christmas Puddings Recipe

Christmas Recipes: Delicious Christmas Puddings

Pudding Recipes given here are easy to cook and absolutely delicious.  Properly made Christmas puddings will be extremely tasty and make your Christmas celebrations a memorable experience.  Enjoy these Puddings with your loved ones during this Christmas.

Christmas Pudding (1).

Ingredients of Christmas Pudding:-

1 lb. raisins (stoned), 1 lb. chopped apples, 1 lb. currants, 1 lb. breadcrumbs, 1/2 lb. mixed peel, chopped fine, 1 lb. shelled and ground Brazil nuts, 1/2 lb. chopped sweet almonds, 1 oz. bitter almonds (ground), 1 lb. sugar, 1/2 lb. butter, 1/2 oz. mixed spice and 6 eggs.

Instructions:-

Wash, pick, and dry the fruit, rub the butter into the breadcrumbs, beat up the eggs, and mix all the ingredients together; if the mixture is too dry, add a little milk. Fill some greased basins with the mixture, and boil the puddings from 3 to 4 hours.

Christmas Pudding (2).

Ingredients:-

12 oz. breadcrumbs, 1/2 lb. currants, 1/2 lb. raisins, 1/2 lb. sweet almonds, 1 doz. bitter almonds, 3/4 lb. moist sugar, 3 oz. of butter, 2 oz. candied peel, 8 eggs, 1 teaspoonful of spice and 1 teacupful of apple sauce.

Instructions:-

Rub the butter into the breadcrumbs, wash, pick, and dry the fruit, stone the raisins, chop or grind the almonds, beat up the eggs, mixing all well together, at the last stir in the apple sauce.  Boil the pudding in a buttered mould for 4 hours, and serve with white sauce.

Christmas Pudding (3).

Ingredients:-

1 lb. each of raisins, currants, sultanas, chopped apples, and Brazil nut kernels; 1/2 lb. each of moist sugar, wholemeal breadcrumbs, wheatmeal, and sweet almonds and butter; 1/4 lb. of mixed peel, 1/2 oz. of mixed spice, 6 eggs, and some milk.

Instructions:-

Wash and pick the currants and sultanas; wash and stone the raisins; chop fine the nut kernels, blanch and chop fine the almonds, and cut up fine the mixed peel. Rub the butter into the meal and breadcrumbs. First mix all the dry ingredients, then beat well the eggs and add them. Pour as much milk as is necessary to moisten the mixture sufficiently to work

it with a wooden spoon. Have ready buttered pudding basins, nearly fill them with the mixture, cover with pieces of buttered paper, tie pudding cloths over the basins, and boil for 4 hours.

Christmas Plum Pudding (1)

Ingredients of Christmas Plum Pudding:-

One cupful of finely-chopped beef suet, two cupfuls of fine bread crumbs, one heaping cupful of sugar, one cupful of seeded raisins, one cupful of well-washed currants, one cupful of chopped blanched almonds, half a cupful of citron, sliced thin, a teaspoonful of salt,

one of cloves, two of cinnamon, half a grated nutmeg and four well-beaten eggs.

Making of Christmas Plum Pudding:-

Dissolve a level teaspoonful of soda in a tablespoonful of warm water. Flour the fruit thoroughly from a pint of flour; then mix the remainder as follows: In a large bowl put the

well-beaten eggs, sugar, spices and salt in one cupful of milk. Stir in the fruit, chopped nuts, bread crumbs and suet, one after the other, until all are used, putting in the dissolved soda last and adding enough flour to make the fruit stick together, which will take all the pint. Boil or steam three to four hours. Serve with wine or any well-flavored sauce.

Christmas Plum Pudding (2)

Ingredients:-

2 cups ground suet, 2 cups bread crumbs, 2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons Baking Powder, 2 cups sugar. 2 cups seeded raisins. 2 cups currants, 1 cup finely cut citron, 1 cup finely cut figs, 1 tablespoon finely cut orange peel, 1 tablespoon finely cut lemon peel, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon ground mace, 1 tablespoon salt, 1 cup water or prune juice and 1 cup grape or other fruit juice

Instructions:-

Mix thoroughly all dry ingredients and add fruit; stir in water and fruit juice and mix thoroughly. Add more water if necessary to make stiff dough. Fill greased molds 2/3 full, and steam two or three hours.  This pudding should be prepared and cooked a week or more before used. Before serving steam one hour and serve with hard, lemon or foamy sauce.

Cold Chocolate Christmas Pudding Recipe

This makes a good alternative if you don't like traditional Christmas Pudding. It looks similar but is much lighter. Serves 6 - you need to make this at least one day before you serve it and finish it off just before serving. It would be far better, though, to make it well in advance.

Ingredients

• 350ml/11 fl oz milk
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 stick on cinnamon
• 4 egg yolks
• 95g/3-1/4oz soft brown sugar
• 200ml/6-1/2 fl oz chilled cream
• 2 tbsp brandy (optional)
• 105g/3-1/2oz fruit cake, broken into 1 or 2 inch chunks
• 45g/1-1/2oz chopped marron glacé
• 45g/1-1/2oz chopped glacé cherries
• 45g/1-1/2oz amaretti biscuits (cookies), broken into large pieces

Topping

• 185g/6oz good quality plain (semi-sweet) chocolate
• 30ml/1 fl oz oil (not olive oil)
• 50g/1-3/4oz white chocolate

Method

1. Put the milk, vanilla essence and cinnamon stick into a saucepan and bring slowly to the boil, then remove from heat.

2. In a bowl, cream the egg yolks and sugar together until thick, then, after removing the cinnamon stick, add the hot milk and mix until all ingredients are well combined.

3. Put the mixture into a fresh saucepan and very slowly, over a low heat, stir it continuously until it thickens enough to coat a spoon. Do not allow it to boil.

4. Using a sieve (strainer), strain it into a clean bowl and put aside to cool completely.

5. When it is completely cold, add the cream and brandy. Stir them in then put them in a container and freeze until just firm to the touch, about 3 hours.

6. Take the mixture out of the freezer, put into a bowl and beat until the it is thick and creamy.

7. Repeat the freezing and beating twice more but on the final one, add the marron glacé, fruitcake, glacé cherries and amaretti biscuits (cookies) and put in a 2 pint or 1 litre pudding basin to produce the traditional Christmas pudding shape. Cover with clingfilm (Saran wrap) and return to freezer. Check after 30 minutes and stir if the cake, biscuits and fruit have sunk to the bottom. Cover again, and freeze overnight.

Topping - Do at least 2 hours before serving
8. Remove from freezer and then turn it out onto a wire rack. Flash the basin in and out of very hot water to loosen the ice cream, if necessary.

9. To make the topping, melt the plain (semi-sweet) chocolate. When it is melted, add the oil, stirring it in well and until chocolate is cool but still liquid.

10. Now pour the chocolate smoothly and evenly over the pudding so, except for the bottom, it is completely covered. Put it back in the freezer for about 2 hours.

11. Melt the white chocolate. Take the pudding out of the freezer and put on a serving plate. Pour the white chocolate over the top of the pudding. This time it should not be completely covered. The white chocolate is supposed to resemble cream poured over a pudding. Decorate with a sprig of artificial holly.

12. It would be much better to make it in advance, wrap it well in cling film (saran wrap) and keep it in the freezer. Take it out about 30 minutes before serving.

Traditional Christmas Pudding Recipe

The British Christmas Pudding is a very rich traditional dessert, served as part of Christmas Day dinner.

Of course, many people just can't manage to eat it then, so often it's served later in the day and for several days following because, unless you have a large family gathering, it is too big for one meal. Because it is so rich, most people only eat small portions.

The pudding is made as much as three months before Christmas because, stored correctly, the flavor matures. In fact, some people even use them when they are one or two years old.

Ingredients

• 12oz fresh breadcrumbs
• 12oz plain (all purpose) flour
• 1tsp salt
• 1/2 level tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 level tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 level tsp ground cinnamon
• 12oz sultanas
• 16oz currants
• 12oz raisins
• 8oz chopped mixed candied peel
• 6oz chopped almonds
• 8oz peeled & chopped apples
• 12oz shredded suet (you can now buy vegetarian suet)
• 8oz castor (fine grained) sugar
• 8oz soft brown sugar
• grated rind & juice of 1 lemon
• grated rind & juice of 1 orange
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 tsp almond essence
• 3 large beaten eggs
• 4tbs brandy or rum (optional, use extra fruit juice if preferred)
• 150ml (2/3 cup) milk

Method

1. This quantity of ingredients makes at 3 puddings. You need traditional pudding basins to cook these. The measurements of the basins required are:

600ml (1 pint) basin, 900ml (1-1/2pt) basin and 1.1litre (2 pint) basin

2. Mix all the dry ingredients plus the apples, orange and lemon rind and juice, brandy, eggs and milk together in a very large mixing bowl. Cover and leave overnight.

3. Grease the pudding basins. Prepare three large pans by half filling with water and then bringing them to the boil or use steamers.

4. Stir the mixture again and then put into prepared basins. Cover with a circle of greaseproof paper then foil which should overlap the basin so it can be tied on with string around the lip of the basin. Put each basin into one of the saucepans. The water should simmer throughout the cooking and the water should be topped up as required. The 2 pint pudding will take 9 hours to cook, the 1-1/2 pint one will take 7 hours and the smallest, the 1 pint, will take 5 hours.

5. Remove from the pans and take off the foil but leave the greaseproof paper in place. When they are cold, cover again with foil and store in a cool place. They will normally keep for months and are usually made at least a month or two before Christmas. The extra puddings are sometimes given to friends or relatives as gifts because many people don't have the time or knowledge to make Christmas puddings themselves. Home made puddings are almost always received with pleasure.

6. On Christmas Day, steam the puddings as above for between 2 and 3 hours depending on size.

7. It is tradition to bring a whole pudding to the dining table, pour spirits over it like brandy or rum, then set the spirit alight - see the Setting Fire to the Christmas Pudding below.

8. Serve with brandy butter or traditional white sauce. After Christmas Day, you can heat small quantities, rather than a whole pudding, in a microwave.