Christmas pudding – make it early

Chistmas pudding baked 8 October. Plate from Portmeirion Potteries, slate table mat from Llechwedd Quarries.

With only 78 days left until Christmas it is high time to make this years’ Christmas pudding. In view of the guidelines given out by the Swedish authorities, directing us to cancel all family gatherings over the festive season and beyond I feel that preparing a Christmas pudding is an act of defiance akin to Anthony Hopkins in Legends of the fall (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THP1wlGT2fA).

The recipe I use is my own combination from a number of sources and has been used by me for the paast decade or so:

100 g Flour

150 g Bread crumbs

150 g margarine (or butter)

650 g Mixed dried fruit (raisins, plums, figs and currants)

½ dl Orange juice

Zest and juice from 1 lemon

1 Apple chopped

2 eggs

½ teaspoon mixed spice

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg (fresh finely grated is so much better than standard ground nutmeg)

200 g dark (really dark) sugar

Salt – not too much

2 cl cognac

4 cl cognac for the cook!

Mix all the dry ingredients with the margarine to a crumbly consistency. Add all the rest and mix well. Transfer to a suitable bowl and cook in a pressure cooker for an hour or more. Store until Christmas ansd feed with rum or cognac a few times.

On Christmas day, at about the same time as you take the turkey out of the oven, put the pudding back in the pressure cooker and steam until it is time for desert. Decorate with a sprig of holly and serve with whipped cream (possibly with some cognac or rum mixed in). If you flambé your creation you will get an extra round of applause.