I’m 46 years old and today is the FIRST time in my entire life I’ve made a Christmas pudding and steamed any sort of pudding.
How can I have lived 46 years and not done either of these?
This maybe because
a) I haven’t got a pudding bowl
b) I haven’t got a pressure cooker or a large saucepan with a secure lid
c) Steaming puddings seems to take hours and hours and hours
d) It seems such a FAFF!
But I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to make a proper authentic wartime Christmas pudding this year so it was time to just get on with it this morning and find ways to adapt what I have.
I found a large deeper than normal dessert bowl which I greased well and put the mixture in, then I covered it in foil and then tied string all the way around and made a string handle so I could remove it from the saucepan easily later on
I used my huge big saucepan/pot and placed some crumpled up foil in the bottom before placing my pudding on top of it. The water came half way up the side of the dessert bowl
Once the water was simmering I covered the top of the pot in foil and placed a heavy saucepan on top
Now I have to keep my fingers crossed for the next 4 hours.
I’m pretty excited!!!
C xxxxx
PS The BBC has a good little video on how to steam a pudding and I used some of the tips from it
Dear carolyn I usually do my pud over night in my slow cooker. It helps also if you do individual ones in cups. I drink out of mugs these days!
Happy Birthday and congratulations! I love fig pudding; we make one every Christmas. I find flaming it in brandy gives it that little extra kick that puts it over the top. I don’t see any reason why your arrangement wouldn’t work perfectly well, but in future you can just plunk the batter into a tea towel, tie it at the top and let it sit on an upturned bowl in the pot, or hang it from a wooden spoon slung across the rim of the pot. That’s how the original bomb shape was formed. Anyway, I can’t wait to hear how it comes out.
It came out well!! My birthday isn’t until January (47 then) but it feels like my birthday because my first ever Christmas pudding came out perfectly!!! The only thing left to do is feed it a little alcohol and then on the big day pour some whiskey (I prefer whiskey) over it and set it on fire!! 🙂
Thanks for the tips Liz!!
C xxxx
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Brilliant.
I haven’t made a Christmas pudding in years. Yours is sounding tasty so I might have to make a quick one!
My husband’s the pudding maker here. He is too much of a GOM to post but I’ll tell you anyway (and this is the non-specific, non-technical version. Flour the cloth, dump in the mixture, tie it up really well, put it in your big pan of hot water and keep it on the simmer for hours. When you bring the pudding out, unwrap it carefully on a plate and give it time to dry off. The flour makes a very satisfying protective skin.