Monday, December 30, 2013

Individual Christmas Puddings


V does not have a sweet tooth, and normally I don´t either, but Christmas puddings are another matter.

I´ve been reading about these tiny pies in mason jars and thought the same thing might be applicable to plum puddings, and then just keep in the pantry for however long required - properly dosed with brandy, of course.

So this year I used a modified version of Nigella Lawson´s Ultimate Christmas pudding.  We are in full austerity mode, so  limited myself to purchasing a bottle of brandy and tried to use only what we had on hand.  This meant raisins, prunes and dried apricots soaked in brandy, lard for suet which I can´t get here, and molasses for honey.


Making puddings was shown to me without mysterious stirring traditions or tokens to hide in the batter.  But the heady smell of the macerated fruits and hearty spices is something I look forward to every year.


I halved her recipe and got 3 lovely pint jar sized puddings. I used baking paper covers under the screw-on lids and steamed for about 4 hours in the slow cooker, since it took forever to get to simmering.  Once cooled, I changed out the damp papers, dosed with more brandy, screwed the lids on firmly and put 2 away in the cupboard.  The remaining one steamed for another hour and a half and got eaten in it´s entirety, with lashings of brandy hard sauce.  It was delicious! Ho, ho, ho.

3 comments:

  1. You can get suet from any butcher in Spain, my Spanish is bad but if you ask for
    the fat around the kidneys, rinyoles en grueso? you will get your suet, normally free of charge. You then just grate the fat with a cheese grater, and there is your suet, ready to make you Christmas puds or or steamed steak and kidney pies. You can also freeze the suet, you normally get given a lot, so you have it on hand for the next time you need it.

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  2. Suet is ¨sebo¨. I´ve asked and was told that since mad cow it isn´t available here.

    Happy New Year!

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  3. We can get either beef or lamb and we could in Spain but would opt for lambs as it was far less in quantity, does the same job.

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