Flambe Christmas Pudding

Here is my Mom’s Christmas pudding for Christmas Day dinner that she made every year and served with a brown sugar sauce. I continue to do so, but have varied the fruit I put in, ie figs, dried fruit like apricots, then this is Flambé to the wows of the kids not to mention the adults!   It is always so festive! 

This recipe was written in my brother's unused old Science Notebook and the stains in the corner have made the recipe difficult to read.  Most of all if not all of my Mom's recipe were written with little instruction or details.  

Christmas Pudding

1 c Bread crumbs, 1 c dates, 1 c suet* , 1/2 c Brown sugar, 1/2 c citron peel, 1 c raisins, 1/2 c chopped nuts

Spices; 1Tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp cloves, 1/4 tsp allspice.

1 c flour, 1/4 tsp Baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs, 1 c Milk, 1/3 c molasses

Mix, cover double foil, steam 3 hours.

*Suet is ground beef fat used in many classic old recipes like savoury pies and puddings. One can use butter in place of the suet.  Suet is found in the meat frozen section.

Steps in mixing the pudding


Combine bread crumbs, suet, dates, raisins, citron peel, sugar, nuts
Mix spices, baking soda and baking powder with flour
Whisk eggs, milk and molasses together
Mix flour mixture into egg mixture, then mix in the fruit mixture. Very thick batter!
Grease well your moulds, fill and smooth the top, double foil the pans.

 Since I tend to add more fruit to my batter I have an assortment of moulds ready to go. This is a rich pudding and a little goes a long way when served!  Marilyn's recipe

Before you beginning, you need to plan out your moulds and steaming pots which need water with a rack to steam the puddings ready to go. I use my canner with the rack insert and I can get two moulds in it. Making sure your water level doesn't drop during the cooking time. steam for 3 hours.

Let cool on a rack, rewrap and freeze.

Traditional Steamed Pudding for Christmas

Christmas pudding is very much a Christmas tradition in our family.  My Mom made steamed pudding for every Christmas dinner.  Flaming the pudding became part of this tradition in my house when my children became teenagers. 

My steam pudding has dried fruit in the mixture, although I did add about a cup of deluxe mixed glazed fruit this year. 

I added about 1/2 cup of rum to the cut dried fruit to marinade.  Why, cause the prepared fruit can set until one is ready to steam it.

I like to used apricots, figs, peel, cranberries, ginger and raisins. 

I used about 4 cups of fruit.

   

I set up the two following pictures for the recipe in Canadian Living Christmas cookbook and realized as I was making it, that I never followed the instructions as they don't make any sense.  All my notes over the years are by the recipe.

The recipe instructions were to add the next ingredients to the prepared fruit!

3-4 c prepared dried fruit
1 1/2 c grated carrots

1 c suet

2 c flour

1 c brown sugar (only added 1/2c)

The spices 
1 tsp  ginger
1 tsp  cinnamon
freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves

The next step was to add the rest of the ingredients to the first mixture:

The spices
1 1//2 c grated potatoes
1/2 c pin cherry jelly
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
I added 1 tsp of vanilla

I did add 4 eggs as the mixture seemed very dry.  But the recipe does not add eggs

The way I have been making the recipe is to mix all the dry ingredients, add to the fruit mixture and then the grated vegetables and then the wet ingredients.   

Spoon into prepared moulds

Cover with tin foil and steam on a rack in a large pot or canner for 3 hours. Cool and freeze 

This picture and a blog by the Mennonite Girls Can Cook brought back memories of Mom canning her pudding in mason jars.    

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/16153/carrot-pudding/