This gorgeous dark and fruity Christmas pudding is a great table centrepiece during the festive season. Pair it with some Irish cream liqueur for a boozier hit, and your guests will LOVE you.
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Yields:
12
Prep Time:
20 mins
Cook Time:
4 hrs 30 mins
Total Time:
4 hrs 50 mins
Cal/Serv:
264
Ingredients
250g
(9oz) sultanas
75g
(3oz) each dried apricots, cranberries, dates, figs, roughly chopped
3Tbsp.
dark rum
250ml
(9fl oz) Guinness
Zest and juice of 1 orange
Butter, to grease
75g
(3oz) vegetarian suet
100g
(3½oz) light muscovado sugar
3Tbsp.
golden syrup
60g
(2½oz) plain flour
1tsp.
each ground cinnamon, ginger and mixed spice
1
large egg, beaten
50g
(2oz) fresh white breadcrumbs
Directions
Step 1
Put the dried fruit, rum, Guinness, orange zest and juice into a large non-metallic mixing bowl. Cover and leave to soak overnight at room temperature.
Step 2
Lightly butter a 1 litre (1¾ pint) pudding basin and line the base with a disc of baking parchment. Put a 35.5cm (14in) square of foil on top of a square of baking parchment of the same size. Fold a 4cm (1⅛in) pleat across the centre of both together and set aside.
Step 3
Add remaining ingredients to the soaked fruit, stirring well. Spoon the mixture into the prepared basin, pushing down well. Level the surface. Put the pleated foil and parchment square (foil-side up) on top of the basin and smooth down to cover. Tie a long piece of string securely under the lip of the basin, then loop it over again and tie to make a handle.
Step 4
To cook, put a heatproof saucer in the base of a large, deep pan. Lower in the prepared pudding and pour in enough water to come half-way up sides of basin, trying not to get any on top of pudding. Cover with a tight-fitting lid, then bring water to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer gently for 4½hr, topping up the water as necessary. Remove pudding from the pan and cool completely.
Step 5
When cool, wrap the entire basin, still with its foil lid, tightly in clingfilm and then another layer of foil. Store in a cool, dark place for up to two months.
To reheat your pudding
Take off the top layer of foil, the clingfilm and the pleated lid. Re-cover top of basin with baking parchment and foil lid as above. Following the heating instructions in step 4, cook the pudding for 2hr.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
