Sweet red fruits and a splash of amaretto give this pudding an Italian spin. Soak the fruit the day before – and make sure your pudding basin fits your slow cooker!
Lucy, our former Food Editor creates lots of delicious meals each month. Her recipes are always packed with flavour and they're super easy too!
See more of Lucy Jessop’s recipes
Lucy Jessop
Lucy, our former Food Editor creates lots of delicious meals each month. Her recipes are always packed with flavour and they're super easy too!
See more of Lucy Jessop’s recipes
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Ingredients
200g dried mixed fruit
1 x 100g bag berries and cherries (or use 50g dried cherries, 25g dried cranberries and 25g dried blueberries)
100g natural glacé cherries, quartered
zest and juice of 1 medium orange
50ml amaretto
50ml brandy
100g dark muscovado sugar
1 tsp ground mixed spice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
a generous grating of fresh nutmeg
soft butter, to grease
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
1 medium Bramley apple, about 225g, cored and grated
100g vegetarian suet
50g blanched almonds, roughly chopped
85g self-raising flour
65g fresh white breadcrumbs
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Step by step
Get ahead
Make the pudding up to the end of step 5 up to 3 months ahead. Store in a cool dry place then reheat as per step 6.
Put all of the dried fruit, glacé cherries, orange zest and juice, amaretto and brandy, sugar and spices in a large bowl. Mix well to combine, cover and set aside overnight or up to a couple of days ahead.
When ready to cook, grease a 1-litre ceramic pudding basin (or Pyrex bowl) with a little butter and line the base with a circle of baking paper. Cut a square of baking paper, about 30cm, and cut the same sized piece of foil. Place the foil shiny-side down on a clean surface and lay the baking paper on top. Grease the baking paper well with butter, then, keeping both together, fold a 3cm pleat into the middle. This allows for expansion during cooking. Switch the slow cooker on to low.
Add the remaining ingredients and a pinch of salt to the soaked fruit and mix thoroughly to combine. Scrape the mixture into the prepared basin and level.
Cover the pudding with the foil and baking paper, buttered-side down, and press around the edges to enclose, while maintaining the pleat. Then secure tightly around the rim with a piece of string – tie twice around the rim of the bowl to make it secure. Trim off the surplus foil and paper, and add a string handle for easy lifting, if your pudding basin has a ridged lip.
Sit the basin inside the slow cooker. Boil the kettle and pour water around the pudding until it comes halfway up. Place the slow-cooker lid on top; it needs to be fully closed, with no gaps. Cook for 10 hours. Remove from the slow cooker and leave to cool completely. Then remove the paper and foil and replace with fresh wrappings, as before, ready for when you want to re-steam and serve. Store in a cool dark place, or the fridge.
On the day you want to serve the pudding, cook in the slow cooker as before, but for 4 hours on the low setting, until piping hot.
We like to serve this with whipped cream spiked with a few tablespoons of amaretto, to taste.
Tip
No slow cooker? Steam the pudding for 4 hrs in step 5 to cook it. To reheat, steam for 1 1⁄2 hrs in step 6.
Christmas pudding is traditionally soaked with alcohol, preferably brandy, for flavour maturation. However, many people prefer rum and whisky spirit with high alcohol content.
“Figgy pudding is a specific type of Christmas or plum pudding that contains figs as a primary ingredient along with other dried fruits,” Heron says. “However, the name 'figgy pudding' doesn't always mean it exclusively contains figs. It could contain a variety of dried fruits in addition to or alongside figs.
For the pudding and the cake, you could substitute the alcohol with apple, orange, red grape or prune juice. The cake can be made ahead but don't feed it.
Heating alcohol, or any other cooking liquid, does not make it evaporate that quickly. The longer you cook, the more alcohol cooks out, but you have to cook food for about 3 hours to fully erase all traces of alcohol.
The flaming brandy is said to represent the passion of Christ. Christmas puddings were traditionally boiled in a “pudding cloth”, although today are usually steamed in a bowl. Presented on the table with a sprig of holly, they are then doused in brandy and set alight.
Outside the UK suet can be difficult to find and vegetable shortening is the best alternative. The same weight should be used - 150g and for the US it is 14 tablespoons. As shortening is quite soft it is best to freeze it overnight before grating.
Can children eat Christmas pudding for having an alcoholic content? Yes. Many foods have traces of alcohol (Ethanol) and many other alcohols can be present in trace amounts. The volume of alcohol in Christmas pudding is not high, even when flambeed and served with Brandy butter or a whisky sauce.
Use a mixture of flour and breadcrumbs, not just flour. Though in older times the choice was more to do with economy, breadcrumbs give the pudding a much lighter texture. And again, use just enough flour to hold the mixture gently together.
To feed the pudding, poke some holes in the top of the pudding and pour in 1-2 tablespoons of brandy every week, until Christmas Day. To serve, steam the pudding again for about two hours to reheat it.
A sweet marsala or Madeira wine are good alternatives but if you only have a bottle of rum, whisky or brandy on hand then one of these could also be used.
How long does alcohol-free Christmas pudding keep? As this recipe is alcohol-free it won't keep anywhere near as long as traditional recipes. It will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. Bear in mind that if you make this a few days ahead to count the 5 days from the day you first steam the pudding.
It's also been called plum pudding or figgy pudding, which we know from songs, but what is it, exactly? It's nothing like what Americans call pudding, which is a custard of milk and eggs with flavoring. It's closer to fruitcake, although there's no cake in it, and it's boiled instead of baked.
If you serve a rich sweet wine like a liqueur muscat or a sweet sherry you can make an already rich pudding overwhelmingly rich. On the other hand a lighter dessert wine such as a Sauternes or a sparkling wine like Moscato, can get lost amidst all the rich spicy fruit.
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Prep time: 30 mins
