What should I have for Christmas dinner? Try making an English Christmas pudding. This is a vegan Christmas pudding recipe. It is a modern easy plum pudding recipe which gives you a much lighter result or taste than a traditional Christmas pudding.
It has more dynamic flavors, and is super-easy to make. This is exactly the way you like it best. You will enjoy it!
This easy plum pudding recipe was created specifically so that it can be cooked in your microwave. (Don’t have a microwave? Turn to the traditional method of cooking or baking below.)
The “plum” in plum pudding refers to dried prunes. Over the years, some recipes evolved to exclude the prunes in favor of raisins. Today it can be made with all manner of dried and candied fruits you prefer or available.
Quick Background about English Christmas Pudding
Plum pudding (English Christmas pudding) or raisin pudding is another Christmas delicacy with origins older than Catholic religion itself. Druids or Celtic priests believed that Dagda, the god of fertility and agriculture, celebrated the winter solstice by mixing up a pudding of the earth’s bounty, including variety of fruits, meats, and spices.
For centuries the pudding was somewhat unceremoniously boiled in a sack. The Victorians finally utilized the pudding in a mold or basin to give it the more uniform shape we have today.
In England and Australia, a homemade plum pudding is usually enormous and steamed in a big heatproof bowl for hours. You can use a typical 6-cup tubed steamed plum pudding mold to reduce the cooking time.
It can be aged for days, weeks, or even months, just like a fruitcake, doused every week with about 1/4 cup of brandy, dark rum, or both. For American discerning and sophisticated tastes, a couple of days are enough.
HOW TO MAKE EASY PLUM PUDDING? - AN ENGLISH CHRISTMAS PUDDING RECIPE
YOU SHOULD TRY THIS! If you decide to cook a Christmas pudding, so make your celebrations less stressful or demanding by cooking it in advance and simply reheating when needed.
COOKING TIME: 15 MINUTES
SERVES 10
PUDDING INGREDIENTS:
Butter, for greasing
90g (3 oz) plain flour
¼ tsp salt
90g (3 oz) vegetable suet
½ tsp mixed spice
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
45g (1½ oz) breadcrumbs
60g (2 oz) caster sugar
60g (2 oz) chopped mixed candied peel
60g (2 oz) dark soft brown sugar
60g (2 oz) glacé cherries, chopped
90g (3 oz) currants
90g (3 oz) raisins
120g (4 oz) sultanas
45g (1½ oz) blanched almonds, chopped
30g (1 oz) peeled, cored and chopped cooking apple
Juice and finely grated zest of ½ unwaxed lemon
2 tsp golden syrup
2 tsp gravy browning
4 tbsp brandy
2 eggs, beaten
4 tbsp milk
Brandy butter or rich white brandy sauce, to serve
COOKING PROCEDURE:
1) GREASE A 1.7-LITRE (3-pint) pudding basin. Sift the flour and salt together into a large mixing bowl, and then add all the dry ingredients on the list, down to and including the apple and lemon zest and mix until combined. Stir in all the remaining ingredients and pour the pudding mixture into the greased basin.
2) COVER SECURELY WITH A LID or double layer of greaseproof paper. Cook in an 800W (or above) microwave on the High setting for 5 minutes, leave to stand for 5 minutes, then repeat.
3) Transfer the pudding mold to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Invert the pudding onto a plate. Cool completely. Wrap the pudding in aluminum foil and refrigerate at least overnight and up to 3 days.
4) You can serve straight away or store in the fridge until needed and reheat as described below.
5) Douse in rum or brandy, set alight if you wish, and serve with your choice of brandy butter, rich white brandy sauce, custard or cream.
6) You can either drizzle it with golden syrup and a swig of Bourbon or be a bit flashier and gently heat a good few swigs of Bourbon and flame the plum pudding.
HOW TO FLAME A CHRISTMAS PUDDING? In a small saucepan, heat the brandy over low heat just until warm. Do not allow the brandy to come to a boil. (Brandy won’t flame unless it is warm, but if overheated, it could unexpectedly ignite.)
Carefully pour the warm brandy over the pudding and light the brandy with a match. Present the flaming pudding, spooning the brandy over the top of the pudding until it extinguishes. You can serve it hot, with the Hard Pudding Sauce.
When the flame subsides drizzle with golden syrup. Serve with cream, custard or even ice cream.
7) TO REHEAT A PUDDING COOKED IN A MICROWAVE, REMOVE THE PUDDING from the basin and sprinkle with 1½ teaspoons of water. Cover with cling film and cook in the microwave for 4 minutes. Leave for 4 minutes, and then cook for a further 3 minutes.
HOW TO BAKE A TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS PUDDING?
1) Grease two 1.1-litre (2-pint) pudding basins or one 2.3-litre (4-pint) basin. Pour the mixture into the greased basin(s), right up to the top.
2) Cover securely with a lid or foil and steam the smaller puddings for 6 hours or the larger one for 10 hours.
3) When the time’s up, lift out the bowl, remove the foil and paper, then carefully turn the pudding out on to a plate ready to serve, or leave to cool and reheat just before you need it.
HOW TO MAKE AN APPETIZING CHRISTMAS PUDDING SAUCE?
Some hard-line traditional cooks wouldn’t dream of serving plum pudding without hard sauce (creamed butter and confectioners’ sugar spiked with brandy). Most people prefer the coolness of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream with the warm pudding. It’s up to you!
1) How to Make Hard Sauce?: In a medium bowl, using a handheld electric mixer set at high speed, beat 1 cup (2 sticks) room temperature unsalted butter until creamy, about 1 minute.
2) On low speed, gradually beat in 1 cup confectioners’ sugar.
3) Beat in 2 tablespoons brandy, 2 tablespoons dark rum, and 1 /4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg.
4) Serve at room temperature. (The hard sauce can be prepared up to 1 day ahead, covered tightly and refrigerated. Return to room temperature.)
HOW TO REHEAT PLUM PUDDING OR ENGLISH CHRISTMAS PUDDING?
To reheat plum or raisin pudding, butter the steamed pudding mold well. Unwrap the pudding. To heat by steam, slip it back into the mold. Place the mold in the pot and steam again in simmering water until heated through, about 1 hour.
To reheat, steam the smaller puddings for about 1 hour; the larger for 2 hours.
To reheat in a microwave, place the pudding, upside down, in a large microwave-safe bowl. Cover the pudding with plastic wrap. Heat on Medium-High (70 percent power) until heated through, 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the wattage of your oven (the higher the wattage, the less time needed to reheat the pudding).
The pudding is heated through when an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center reads 165°F. Be careful of the steam when you uncover the pudding. Invert the pudding onto a rimmed heatproof plate.
FAST AND EASY PUDDING COOKING TIPS:
1) Cold plum pudding leftovers are delicious with a slice of British cheese, such as Lancashire.
2) How long can you keep a Christmas plum pudding? Plum pudding is usually aged for a month or more, or even a year; the alcohol content of the pudding prevents it from spoiling during this time.
3) Old recipes for plum pudding call for beef suet, the hard, crisp fat around the kidneys. My grandmother prefers to use butter because it’s easier to find, but you can substitute shredded beef suet.
4) Suet (beef suet) can be bought in natural form in many supermarkets. As it is the fat from around the kidneys, the connective tissue, blood and other non-fat items must be removed.
It then needs to be coarsely grated to make it ready to use. It must be kept refrigerated before use and used within a few days of purchase, just like meat.
Pre-packaged suet sold in supermarkets is dehydrated suet. It is mixed with flour to make it stable at room temperature. Because of this, some care is needed when using it for older recipes that call for fresh suet as the proportions of flour to fat can alter. Most modern recipes specify packaged suet.
5) Caster sugar, often spelled castor sugar, is a term that is used in England, but most of us here in the U.S. of A. have never heard of it. It is actually just superfine granulated sugar and you may find it labeled as plainly superfine.
Try Other Pudding and Related Recipes:
How to Make Saffron Rice Pudding- Easy Saffron Recipes
How to Make Sweet Potato Pie with Condensed Milk- Easy Sweet Potato Pie Recipe
11 Yummy and Easy Pudding Recipes without Oven (Video Recipes)
Sansa Lemon Cakes Medieval Recipe- Game of Thrones Food Recipes
HOW TO MAKE VEGETARIAN CHRISTMAS PUDDING (PLUM PUDDING/ RAISIN PUDDING)?
Vegetable suet is available in supermarkets in the United Kingdom and also on Amazon.com, made from fat such as palm oil combined with wheat flour (Atora/Tesco) or rice flour (Morrisons).
It resembles shredded beef suet, and is used as a vegetarian substitute in recipes, but with slightly different results from animal suet. Vegetable suet is also available in light versions with lower fat content. Please refer PUDDING INGREDIENTS list above if you want to purchase one.
REFERENCES:
Jamie Oliver. 2017. Jamie Oliver's Christmas Cookbook: For the Best Christmas Ever. Flatiron Books. ISBN-13: 978-1250146267
Rick Rodgers. 2009. Christmas 101: Celebrate the Holiday Season from Christmas to New Year's (Holidays 101). HarperCollins e-books. ASIN: B000W93BJQ
The Pudding Club (Author). 2014. Great British Puddings: 140 Sweet, Sticky, Yummy, Classic Recipes from the Pudding Club of Great Britain. Ebury Press. ISBN-13: 978-0091945428
