Cranberry Christmas pudding
- Preparation and cooking time
- Total time
- + 4 hours steaming + 24 hours soaking
- Easy
Ingredients
- 100g raisins
- 100g sultanas
- 100g dried cranberries
- 100g candied peel
- 100g currants
- 100g dried figs, halved (optional)
- 100ml cherry brandy or brandy
- 100g whole blanched almonds
- 2 bramley apples, grated
- 1 lemon, zested
- 6 tbsp golden syrup
- 200g butter, chilled in the freezer and grated
- 180g dark muscovado sugar
- 4 eggs
- 250g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ of a whole one nutmeg, grated
- ½ tsp cinnamon
Method
- STEP 1
Bring the dried fruit and alcohol to a simmer, turn off the heat and leave for 24 hours. Add the almonds, apple and zest. Pour the golden syrup into 2 × 1 litre pudding basins or smaller ones with a total volume of 2 litres.
- STEP 2
Collect some whole pieces of fruit from the mix and add them to the bottom of the basins with a few almonds. Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs, fruit and rest of the ingredients and mix well. Spoon into the basins. Cover each with a sheet of greaseproof paper layered with a sheet of foil. Make a pleat along the centre of each to allow the pudding to expand, then tie around the lip of the dish with string. Steam for 3 hours on the top of the stove in a pan with a lid – the water should come ¾ of the way up the basins. Or cook in the oven for 3 hours on a trivet – half-fill the roasting tin with water and top up as you need to. Cool and wrap in clingfilm, then store somewhere cool. Reheat by steaming for an hour or microwaving on full power for 5 minutes.
