The Famous Christmas Pudding
My mother used to make this every year from as early as I can remember. The Sunbeam Mixmaster was a gift from my father when my older brother James (Jim) was born. The orignal recipe, from the recipe book that came with the Mixmaster, is reproduced at right.
Mum used to go to the bulk food shop, which was on the Pacific Highway at Lindfield next to the ramp to the railway station, and they would measure all the fruit for her. We often helped to stir the pudding, and once it was on the stove and cooking for its first four hours, we would get to scrape out the bowl and lick the spoon.
The recipe calls for a cloth to cook the pudding, but Mum always used two aluminium pudding bowls, with lids that clipped on tightly, a large one, and a smaller one that was often kept until a couple of days after Xmas if there weren’t a lot of people at Chrismas dinner. You can still get such bowls at specialty kitchen shops, and now-a-days they are often lined with a nonstick surface, which also prevents the corrosion that Mum’s bowls were so prone to. I now use two such bowls of the same size.
Even today, when I make this pudding, I cannot bring myself to use the standard metric approximations, I still convert it all to the nearest number of grams. Success with this pudding requires expansion of the very brief recipe it was based on. You will need to start the day before to macerate the fruit. You will also need to buy a loaf of white bread a day or two prior to cooking, to let it get slightly stale (I prefer a Continental loaf, not so doughy). Make sure you have five hours on the actual day, to mix the pudding and then to monitor the boiling process (topping up the water from time to time). Make the pudding 7 to 14 days prior to Christmas Day.
My version of the recipe
On the day before cooking, prepare the fruit:
- 225g Sultanas
- 225g Raisins, halved
- 115g Currants
- 55g Dried dates, each chopped into five pieces
- 55g Preserved or desert figs (not the hard dry ones), cut into small pieces about the same size as the chopped dates
- 55g Glacé cherries, halved
- 55g Slivered almonds
- 3 tblsp Brandy
Place the fruit and brandy in a bowl, mix well and cover. Leave over night at room temperature.
- 170g Soft bread crumbs
Use the stale bread you have so carefully arranged to have on hand, and put it through a food processor. Don’t overdo it, you want fluffy crumbs, not little balls of dough.
- 170g Plain flour
- 1 teasp Mixed spice or allspice
- ½ teasp Bicarbonate of soda
Triple seive the above three ingredients.
- 225g Butter
- 225g Dark brown sugar, or light brown if you prefer
Beat the butter and sugar together in a food mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. It should become slightly pale when it is ready, but do not over beat.
- 5 Small eggs
Add the eggs one at a time and beat evenly through.
Take the bowl off the food mixer, and add one third of the fruit, stir through with a wooden spoon or spatula, then fold through half the bread crumbs, then half the flour mixture, and repeat, finishing with the final portion of the fruit mixture. With the assistance of eager young helpers, if available, beat the mixture with the spoon or spatula for about ten minutes.
Pour the mixture into the two lightly-buttered and floured bowls, clip the lids on tightly, and place in saucepans of simmering water, covered, for 4 hours. Check the water level regularly, you want it about halfway up the bowls, and don’t let it boil dry.
Keep the puddings in a cool dry place until Christmas Day. Return them to the saucepans and simmer again, covered, for 2 hours prior to serving, accompanied according to your taste with hard sauce (brandy butter), custard, whipped cream and/or icecream.