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| A delectable Christmas Pudding will please even Scrooge. Photo by Gerry Lerner. |
December 2008
Updated February 2021
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Christmas Pudding Recipe
Page 2: The “Plum Pudding” and “Figgy Pudding” Of Yore
This is Page 2 of a three-page article. Click on the black links below to visit other pages.
London Lennies English Christmas Rum Pudding Recipe
Although this is called an “English” Christmas pudding, some would say the fruit selection makes it more of an “Irish” recipe. Chef Jeffrey Baruch of London Lennies serves his plum pudding with a delicious cinnamon cream and a raspberry purée.
This recipe serves eight: It makes two puddings, four slices each.
By the way, Februrary 12th is National Plum Pudding Day. Why is it in February instead of during Christmas season?
While it became associated with Christmas in the mid 1600s, there’s no reason why you can’t make one anytime you want a dense, rich dessert and have 30 days to let the alcohol and spices “marinate.”
Pudding Ingredients
- 1 cup shredded suet
(If you use packaged suet, shake off excess flour before use.)
- 2 cups fine bread crumbs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup milk
- 1 pint flour
- 1 cup currants
- 1 cup chopped almonds
- 4 beaten eggs
- 1/2 cup black raisins
- 1/2 cup golden raisins (sultanas)
- 1/2 cup candied mixed fruit (chopped)
- 1/2 cup candied citron
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon dissolved baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 ounce Gosling’s Black Seal rum or other dark rum for flambé
(You can use bourbon, brandy, rum or whiskey if you prefer; Gosling’s Black Seal is also delicious drunk straight, in a mixed “Dark & Stormy” cocktail, etc.)
- Optional holly sprigs or candied fruit for garnish
(Look for quality candied fruits in a specialty food store rather than the supermarket variety. It tastes quite good! Holly is purely decorative and not edible.)
- Ingredients for sauce of choice (this recipe comes with a cinnamon cream sauce, but you have options; see note on sauces on Page 1.)
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While there were still Caribbean monk seals alive when Gosling’s Black Seal black rum was launched in 1860, the only seal ever known to be native to the Caribbean sea and the Gulf of Mexico has been extinct since the early 1950s. It was hunted to oblivion for its blubber, which was processed into oil. Seal skins were also valued for clothing.
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Pudding Preparation
- In large bowl, mix eggs, spices, sugar, salt and milk.
- Stir in the fruit, nuts, bread crumbs and suet.
- Stir in the dissolved baking soda, then add in flour and blend well.
- Place in two 1-pound bowls (molds), plain or fluted as shown at right, then boil or steam for four hours.* (The plain bowls shown in the photo above are the classic style, but if you have fluted molds, they add pizzazz.)
- Store pudding in a cool, dry area for 30 days, allowing the pudding to ripen. If you don’t have a month that’s O.K.; but the longer you have, the more the flavors integrate.
- Reheat, flambé and bring to table. Serve with puréed raspberry sauce and cinnamon cream (recipe below).
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This plum pudding was made in a fluted mold— not the traditional British style, but very lovely. Photo courtesy of Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. |
To flambé
- Flambé with dark rum. You can substitute bourbon, brandy/Cognac or whiskey.
- Scoop out top of pudding with a melon baller and set the contents aside (nibble on them at a later time).
- Fill the hole with warm rum. Lightthe rum with a flame to flambé.
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* One pound molds can fit into most home steamers. If you do not have a home steamer, put the mold into a larger pot filled 1/3 with water and let steam. Check the water level every 20 minutes and add warm water as necessary to keep water level consistent over the four hour period.
Continue To Page 3: Cinnamon Cream Sauce Recipe
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