Mum’s Christmas pudding

Good Food reader Christine Ford shares her late mum’s Christmas pudding recipe – the ideal last-minute option as it doesn’t need to mature to taste really good

  • Prep:10 mins
    Cook:3 hrs 30 mins
  • Easy

Nutrition per serving

  • kcal 429
  • fat 11g
  • saturates 4g
  • carbs 81g
  • sugars 54g
  • fibre 2g
  • protein 6g
  • salt 1.26g

Ingredients

  • 450g white breadcrumbs
  • 350g golden caster sugar
  • 225g vegetarian suet
  • 100g self-raising flour
  • 50g almonds, roughly chopped
  • 225g currants
  • 225g sultanas
  • 225g raisins
  • 175g mixed peel
  • 1 tsp each mixed spice, ground ginger and grated nutmeg
  • 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbsp treacle
  • zest and juice 1 lemon
  • zest and juice 1 orange

Method

  1. Place all the ingredients, except the eggs, treacle and lemon and orange juice, into your largest bowl with 1 tsp salt, then mix. Add the remaining ingredients along with 700ml water, then mix to a consistency that drops off your spoon. Cover and leave in a cool place overnight. The mixture will become firm.

  2. The next day, add enough water to bring the mix back to a dropping consistency, then spoon into greased pudding basins – we used a 2 litre and a 1 litre. Cover with pleated greaseproof paper and foil, and secure with string.

  3. Lower the puddings into a saucepan with upturned saucers or scrunched-up bits of foil in the bottom (so the puds don’t touch the bottom), then fill with boiling water from the kettle until it comes halfway up the sides of the bowl. Simmer the smaller pudding for 2-2½ hrs and the larger one for 3-3½ hrs. Cool, wrap well in foil and chill for up to 3 days.

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