Xmas Pudding

[Bluenose]

Christmas Pudding

8 oz Butter
8 oz Brown Sugar
4 oz Soft White Breadcrumbs
4 eggs (61g)
4 oz Plain Flour
8 oz Currants
8 oz Sultanas
2 oz Candied Peel
2 oz Blanched Almonds
3 Tablespoons Brandy (or more)
¼ Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
¼ Teaspoon Carb Soda
¼ Teaspoon Mixed Spice
8 oz Seeded Raisins
Pinch Salt
Extra butter to grease basin
Glad Bake
Aluminium foil
Cotton string

Clean fruit, chop almonds & put with the brandy overnight.  Prepare a large pudding basin by greasing well with butter, cut a circle of Glad Bake and put in the bottom.
Cream the butter and sugar until light.  Beat the eggs lightly and add gradually to mixture, beating well after each addition.  Add prepared fruit, almonds, peel and brandy, stirring until evenly mixed.  Add breadcrumbs and sifted flour, salt, spice and nutmeg.  Mix thoroughly and pour into basin allowing a little space for rising.

Cover with two thicknesses of Glad Bake and then two of Aluminium foil, folding down over the sides of the bowl.  Tie securely under the rim of the pudding basin using cotton string, forming a handle over the top (this also helps keep the string in place.)  Place in a steamer and steam for 6 hours.  Can also be put directly in boiling water, but keep the water up to at least half way or more throughout cooking - but not over the top of the basin.
Steam a further two hours on the day of serving.  When ready to serve, heat 1/3 cup of brandy set alight and pour while burning over the pudding.  Serve with brandy custard and King Island cream.
Store in the refrigerator.

Slow Cooker variation
Place a trivet* in the bottom of a large slow cooker, put pudding on top then fill to about an inch (2.5 cm) below the rim of the basin with boiling water and cook on high for 8 12 hours without opening the cooker.  Reheat with trivet and water as before for 4 5 hours or twice as long on low.  I usually put it on about 7-8 AM and it is fine when wanted after a midday meal at around 1:30-2:00 PM.
* Or use three egg rings – so long as your cooker is deep enough to hold the basin on top with the lid on properly.

P.S.    Use traditional china or stoneware (not metal) pudding basin available at most kitchen or hardware stores - size required would be about 8" or 20 cm across the top.

Glad Bake is similar to baking parchment, I believe.

Note: This recipe was the old family recipe of an old Scottish lady that was a friend of my grandmother's.  She gave Nana the recipe in the 1930's.  It is at least 100 years old.

[Aggie]

Cheers for the recipe, Blue! It's a bit early for Christmas (although I do have snow on the ground and deer - not reindeer - in the yard at the moment), so is this one of those recipes that should be aged out a bit before Christmas? Mom's fruit cake usually gets made a couple of months early and is given a regular nip of rum to help it mellow before it is eaten.

[Bluenose]

The tradition in my family is to make Xmas pudding on Melbourne Cup day (the first Tuesday in November), so any time now is good!


The Melbourne Cup is Australia's most significant horse race.  It's also known as the race that stops a nation.

[Griffin]

Mystery - I have always hated Christmas Pudding and then last year, after 72 years, I found I really really liked it, couldn't get enough of it. Looking forward to this year, and yes Aggie it needs to be made months ahead of eating. I expect Swato can tell us why!