Christmas Pudding Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is traditionally put inside a Christmas pudding? ›

It was common practice to include small silver coins in the pudding mixture, which could be kept by the person whose serving included them. The usual choice was a silver threepence or a sixpence.

“Figgy pudding is a specific type of Christmas or plum pudding that contains figs as a primary ingredient along with other dried fruits,” Heron says. “However, the name 'figgy pudding' doesn't always mean it exclusively contains figs. It could contain a variety of dried fruits in addition to or alongside figs.

Douse the pudding

Pour the lit brandy over the top of your Christmas pudding – the flames will transfer and – voilà! – a spectacularly festive flaming pud.

What is Stir-up Sunday? It is a tradition that dates back to the Victorian era, when families would gather around and 'stir' their homemade Christmas pudding five weeks before Christmas, the last Sunday before advent begins.

For a long time it's been common practice to include silver Christmas pudding coins, charms or tokens into Christmas pudding. Finding a Christmas coin in your slice of pudding is believed to bring good luck and especially wealth in the coming year.

Why is Christmas pudding also known as plum pudding? The interesting thing is, plum pudding does not contain any plum! This goes back to the Victorian practice of substituting dried plums with other dried fruits, such as raisins.

Christmas Pudding (also known as plum pudding or figgy pudding) is a dish as famous as it is misunderstood.

First off, the English term “pudding” can refer to just about any “dessert”, though “Christmas pudding” is a specific type of dessert, that an American is more likely to call an extreme variant of a “soaked cake” or “brandy cake”.

Traditional figgy pudding is a holiday dish made with flour, suet (a type of hard animal fat), figs, and other dried fruits. Some more modern versions, like this one, are made without suet. Here's what you'll need for this top-rated figgy pudding recipe: Buttermilk.

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.

Why did my Christmas pudding go mouldy? ›

For the pudding, the most likely cause of mould is moisture. If it's steamed for 8 hours, left to cool completely and then you replace the paper and foil.

Traditionally, a silver sixpence was stirred in to bring whoever found the coin on Christmas Day wealth and good luck in the year to come. This tradition dates back to what was known as 'Twelfth Night Cake', which was eaten during the Twelfth Night festivities.

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.

The basin is wrapped in a layer of foil to help prevent the lid from popping off during steaming. This should keep the pudding watertight, but if the water in the pan boils too hard then it can still seep into the pudding basin.

Its just the flavour that stays. Its fine. That's a myth. It doesn't all get cooked out.

Traditionally a silver sixpence was put into the pudding and this was supposed to bring good luck for the following year to whoever found it in their portion of pudding. During Victorian times different shaped silver charms became popular, with each charm having a particular meaning (e.g. a horseshoe for good luck).

Silver sixpences

It should be no surprise then to learn that the English add a silver sixpence (coin) into their Christmas pudding. Whoever finds the silver sixpence in their slice of Christmas pudding is said to be granted good luck for a year.

A Touch of Silver

You'll no doubt be familiar with the act of adding silver coins into Christmas pudding. This tradition came from the notion that whoever finds the coin in their pudding serve can keep the coin, AND has the added bonus of “good luck” for the new year ahead.

Tradition would suggest that custard is the best thing to serve with Christmas pudding, but a pouring cream (particularly if it's spiked with brandy) and vanilla ice-cream are also excellent accompaniments and cooling contrasts to the main event.