Welcome back to my Christmas Pudding Chronicles.
Hopefully, youll enjoy my musings about the experience, and maybe even be inspired to join along.
(If youreadlast weeks post on fruit soaking, that will make sense, I swear.)
But before I get too ahead of myself, today is important.
Thats the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so if youre starting this around then, youre right on time.
I dont like surprise hard things in my food, so I abstained.
Then youll steam the cake for five hours.
Ingredients and considerations
If you didnt know already, Im usingNigella Lawsons recipeas a guideline.
I made a couple minor changes here and there, and Ill go over them in a second.
When appropriate, I use all these tidbits and figure out what I want to put into my pudding.
The first change I made was with my dried fruit.
I do love candied orange peel.
That was my choice, but you’re able to stick to the recipe.
I think the point here is, you’re able to use other stuff.
Use dried cranberries, cherries, or apricots.
Some folks add nuts to their pudding.
it’s possible for you to leave bread out overnight to dry, ordry them in the oveninstead.
Then there was suet.
This is a food from a different region, so some items are more available in different places.
Nigellas recipe, and many others, use grated beef suet.
Beef suet is the hard fat found around the kidneys of cows.
Tallow is the fat rendered from beef suet.
Some recipes use vegetable suet, others use butter, and others still combine grated butter and shortening.
I decided to use half grated butter and half tallow.
I must say, tallow is a tad pungent.
Not of beef, but more of grease.
Its not bad, but its not great.
Well see if the smell lingers in five weeks.
Keep that in mind as you choose your fat.
How to make the pudding
I had a really fun time making this pudding.
It feels like a cross between making a cake and a meatloaf.
My baking habits had me mix my dry ingredients first.
Then I added the brown sugar to the mixed fruits.
Then I added my fats to the egg mixture and mixed.
I dumped in the fruit mixture and mixed.
I dumped in the dry ingredients and mixed.
One blog mentioned running your finger around the edge to seal it, so I did that too.
If nothing else, it made my pudding look neater.
Then I topped it with another circle of parchment.
This is the slightly annoying part.
You have to cover the pudding very well but allow it to expand for steam on the inside.
That would lead to a mushy pud.
Who knew that would be something I did this year?
To do this, lay out the sheet of foil.
Lay the parchment sheet on top of it the same direction.
Trim the parchment so its about a half-inch smaller than the foil on all sides.
Use your fingers on opposite sides to hook the center of the foil and parchment.
Bring about an inch forward to overlap the bottom.
Then press it down into a crease.
Now you have a pleat so your pudding can release steam without popping the seal.
Clamp the foil down tightly all around.
Use the kitchen string to go around the edge of the bowl twice.
check that its as tight as possible without ripping anything.
Tuck the foil under to contain the parchment and press it against the bowl to tidy it up.
Just thread more kitchen string across the bowl, anchoring on the string you used to seal the foil.
Be careful it doesnt pull the main string off though.
Take care that the waterline does not come up to your foil lid.
The first thing I did was immediately pour water on top of my foil lid.
(Dont do that.)
Luckily my lid was secure so I mopped it up and then carefully added water to my pot.
I covered it with a lid and snapped the heat on.
I started on medium heat and waited about five minutes until I heard the water boiling.
Then I lowered the heat down to a low flame.
I only wanted a simmer.
As long as its steaming, were in good shape.
I set my timer for five hours, and got on with my day.
If your lid is tight, you might only need to top it up once or twice.
My lid was kind of loose.
I could always see steam escaping out the edge.
I kept my water kettle full and hot so once an hour I could top up the water level.
Theres not a good way to find out if your pudding is done.
But I wasnt worried.
After cooling it for about 20 minutes, I cut the strings and took off the lid.
It smelled like someone just opened the door of a gingerbread bakery in my home.
I tell youit smelled like Christmas.
Im very excited for this pudding to work out.
I wrapped it with plastic wrap and put it safely away in the microwave.
(Not to cook it.
My microwave sometimes acts as storage space.
Its New York.)
Now I just have to feed it brandy for a month, and hope for the best.
Ill be buying a nice brandy, and well see how that goes next week.
