Christmas colchester pudding | Fruit recipes | Jamie Oliver (2024)

FAQs

How to make Mary Berry's Christmas pudding? ›

Method: In a large bowl, combine the flour, suet or butter, almonds, carrot, raisins, currants, sultanas, breadcrumbs, nutmeg, candied peel, sugar and lemon zest. Add the lemon juice and eggs and stir until well combined. Lightly butter the pudding bowl. Spoon in the pudding mixture and level the surface.

Our answer. Nigella's Ultimate Christmas Pudding uses suet as this is the traditional ingredient. Vegetarians could use vegetarian suet, which is available in many UK supermarkets. Outside the UK suet can be difficult to find and vegetable shortening is the best alternative.

Known initially as Pottage, it has also been called Plum Pudding, Figgy Pudding, and Frumenty. Traditionally, Christmas Pudding is served with a healthy drizzle of thick, delicious brandy sauce, which makes this dessert even more indulgent.

There is also a slight risk that the puddings may be a little dry in comaprison with the regular Christmas pudding. As steaming is a gentle, humid method of cooking this may be less of a concern but you could try "feeding" the puddings with a little alcohol (if freezing, before you freeze them) to help them along.

It's best not to. Suet is a very hard fat, which melts slowly through a mixture during the cooking, whereas butter melts very easily and quickly through a mixture. They are different types of fats and shouldn't be substituted for each other.

The pudding we know today began life as a pottage. This was a kind of broth, including raisins and other dried fruit, spices and wine. It was thickened with breadcrumbs or ground almonds. Not dissimilar to the mince pies of yesteryear, it often included meat or at least meat stock.

If you can't find suet or you just don't want to use it, try shortening instead. One of the advantages of using vegetable shortening is that it is suitable for vegetarian dishes. Before using it, freeze the shortening until it is very firm. Once frozen, grate on a large holed grater so you get more chunky pieces.

Vegetarian suet has also become popular and is made from a vegetable oil instead. If you can't find suet then we have found that grated vegetable shortening (such as Trex, Crisco or Copha) is a good substitute.

Our answer

It is possible to make Nigella's Ultimate Christmas Pudding using vegetable shortening (such as Crisco, Trex, Flora White, Cookeen or Copha) instead of suet (which is made from beef fat).

A luxury website in the UK has started selling the world's most expensive Christmas pudding for a staggering $37,000 (£23,000).

What is the oldest Christmas pudding? ›

The tinned pudding is believed to be one of the oldest in the world. A 120-year-old Christmas pudding given to Royal Navy sailors fighting in the Boer War has gone on display.

Figgy Pudding

“Now bring us some figgy pudding” is the well-known refrain of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas." So, here it is. This seasonal favorite is essentially the same as a Christmas pudding but with the sweet addition of – wait for it – figs.

Morrisons The Best 18 Month Matured Christmas Pudding

Laced with delicious cider, rum and sherry before being matured for a whopping 18 months with the help of some flavoursome Cognac, 'The Best' Christmas pudding from Morrisons is at once the cheapest and most highly rated by customers.

Since traditional Christmas pudding is made with a variety of dried fruits and nuts along with eggs and suet (animal fat)- the high content of the liquor helps it taste better and better over time, with no risk of spoiling even two years after they are made!

Some Christmas puddings, made with dried fruit in the traditional way, are fine to be eaten as much as two years after they were made. "Bear in mind if the pudding is alcohol-free, of course, it will last a good while with the sugar content, but it will not last as long without alcohol to preserve it," stresses Juliet.

Most Christmas puddings are made with suet (shredded beef fat) and this tends to take longer to melt than butter, so the pudding needs a long cooking time to make sure that the fat has melted and combined properly with the other ingredients.

Traditional Christmas pudding is the original make-ahead dessert. It is meant to be made on the last Sunday before Advent, or five weeks before Christmas. The pudding should be stored in a cool, dry place until Christmas day. All you need to do is reheat it before serving.

There is a popular myth that plum pudding's association with Christmas goes back to a custom in medieval England that the "pudding should be made on the 25th Sunday after Trinity, that it be prepared with 13 ingredients to represent Christ and the 12 apostles, and that every family member stir it in turn from east to ...

Christmas pudding is traditionally soaked with alcohol, preferably brandy, for flavour maturation. However, many people prefer rum and whisky spirit with high alcohol content.