Christmas Pudding Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Can I use butter instead of suet in Christmas pudding? ›

If you or someone in your family is a vegetarian and doesn't want to eat suet, look for a recipe that uses butter or margarine instead, such as this recipe for individual Christmas puddings.

If water has entered the wrapped pudding basin then it is likely that the pan was boiling a little too hard, and may also have been too full of water, meaning the water came up and over the top of the pudding basin which makes it easier for water to enter.

We would also mention that after the first steaming the pudding may look a little lighter in colour than you may expect. On the second steaming the pudding will darken in colour. As it re-heats it will also become slightly softer in texture and should be easy to cut once it has been turned out from its basin.

The best tool for checking your Christmas pudding is perfectly cooked is an instant-read food thermometer like the Thermapen ONE.

Alternatives to Suet in Your Cooking

Some recipes recommend using frozen butter as a substitute for suet, but this is risky as the butter melts much faster than suet and your dish will become greasy and heavy. If you can't find suet or you just don't want to use it, try shortening instead.

Outside the UK suet can be difficult to find and vegetable shortening is the best alternative. The same weight should be used - 150g and for the US it is 14 tablespoons. As shortening is quite soft it is best to freeze it overnight before grating.

Ideally we would suggest that when the pudding is made it is steamed for 8 hours (the combined time of the first and second steamings) as the steaming is important for the flavour of the pudding. The pudding can then be microwaved to reheat it on Christmas Day.

Any pudding using fresh fruit for moisture will go off more quickly, whereas a Christmas pudding soaked in booze with high sugar and dried fruit content will last much longer. 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.

As for all puddings, it should be stored in a cool, dry place until Christmas Day. For the US our preference would be to use Pyrex mixing bowls for steaming Christmas puddings.

Superstitions say that Christmas pudding must be prepared with 13 ingredients, which are said to represent Jesus and his twelve disciples. It is also said that the mixture should be stirred in turn from east to west, by each family member, to honour the disciples' journey.

Why do you put breadcrumbs in Christmas pudding? ›

The essentials for the best puddings

Use a mixture of flour and breadcrumbs, not just flour. Though in older times the choice was more to do with economy, breadcrumbs give the pudding a much lighter texture. And again, use just enough flour to hold the mixture gently together.

The longer Christmas pudding is stored- the better it tastes because the alcohol absorbs the moisture of the fresh fruits and soaks the whole pudding.

While the pudding won't dry out if it's steamed for too long, some of the ingredients inside may be spoiled by being overcooked.

Boil or oven steam the puddings for 8 hrs, topping up with water as necessary. Remove from the pans and leave to cool overnight. When cold, discard the messy wrappings and re-wrap in new baking parchment, foil and string. Store in a cool, dry place until Christmas.

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.

Frozen butter: Use shredded frozen butter as an alternative to suet in pie crusts. It's important to note that butter has a lower melting point than suet and will melt much faster.

Suet and butter are both solid-when-cold fats that add moisture and flavour to dessert items. So if you didn't want to use suet in your Christmas pudding, an equal weight of butter, initially, seemed to me like a potential substitute.

Suet is the essential fat in many British puddings, both sweet and savoury, as well as stuffings and dumplings, mincemeat at Christmastime and – of – course suet pastry. It makes some of my most favourite British foods. It's role is to enrich and lubricate mixtures, producing a good crust in steamed suet puddings.

Mix the almonds, apples, candied peel, nutmeg, raisins, flour, breadcrumbs, light muscovado sugar, eggs and 2 tbsp brandy or cognac in a large bowl. Holding the butter in its wrapper, grate a quarter of it into the bowl, then stir everything together.