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Christmas Pudding a simplified recipe featured image

Christmas Pudding

Christmas Pudding. This simplified recipe is baked, not steamed but still has all the great molasses spice flavour of a traditional pudding.
Course Dessert
Cuisine British Inspired
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 hour 34 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 34 minutes
Servings 24 servings or more
Calories 290 kcal
Author Barry C. Parsons

Ingredients

  • 4 cups raisins or 4 to 5 cups mixed dried or glacé fruit of your choice
  • 8 oz rum or other spirits; or apple or white grape juice
  • 2 1/2 cups chopped dates measured after chopping
  • 3/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup molasses
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar it's okay to use lighter if necessary)
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp powdered ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp allspice
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves

Instructions

  1. This recipe starts 24 hours in advance with the soaking of the raisins (or mixed dried/glacé fruit) in the rum or other spirit of choice. I soak them in a shallow airtight glass or plastic container. Stir them several times during the day. After 24 hours the fruit should have soaked up practically all of the rum. You can do this days or weeks in advance if you want. It makes no difference as long as they are stored in an airtight container.
  2. Grease a 9 or 10 inch springform pan very well and line it with parchment paper. This recipe can also be baked in a large tube pan/angel food cake pan that's been greased well, and with the bottom and sides lined with parchment paper.
  3. In a large saucepan melt the butter over medium heat and add the dates, brown sugar, molasses, and water.
  4. Bring to a gentle boil and very slowly simmer for 10 - 15 minutes or until the dates soften and form a thick paste, like the filling for date squares. Watch this carefully and stir often.
  5. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 30-45 minutes.
  6. When cool stir in the beaten eggs.
  7. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and cloves.
  8. Add about 1/2 of the dry ingredients to the date mixture and fold in until almost completely incorporated.
  9. Fold in the soaked dried fruit and then finally the last half of the dry ingredients. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly.
  10. Bake in a preheated 300 degree oven.
  11. Baking time will depend on the pan you are using. My 9 inch springform pan took just over 2 hours. A 10 inch springform pan might take slightly less time, as might a tube pan. Watch it carefully. When a wooden toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean it is done. Test at a few points around the centre to be sure.
  12. Cool for up to an hour in the pan before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely to room temperature.
  13. At this point you can poke small holes in the top and bottom of the cake with a bamboo skewer and pour on 4 ounces of dark rum or your favorite brandy or other spirits suggested in the recipe notes. Slowly spoon half the rum on the top, wait ten minutes, then flip it over, poke holes again and pour the remaining half on the bottom.
  14. Soak several layers of cheesecloth in additional rum if you like and wrap completely around the pudding, then cover with several layers of plastic wrap and store in a COOL place.
  15. You can serve this pudding at room temperature or slightly warm the individual servings in the microwave for 20 seconds before serving with a rum sauce.

Recipe Notes

I prefer rum as the spirit of choice for soaking a Christmas Pudding but I do love a good Brandy pudding as well. Irish whiskey, bourbon or cognac will all fit the bill equally well. Choose what you like best.
 

This recipe provides a good basic recipe but build on it if you like The pudding pictures stays very simple with only raisins as the fruit. You can add glacé cherries or other glacé, candied citrus peel, dried chopped apricots, chopped dried figs, etc. Just keep the total fruit amount under 5 cups and you should be fine.

 

I normally serve this recipe with a Rum Sauce you can find here.
 

You can also add about 3/4 cup roughly chopped nuts to this recipe. Just be sure to toast them on a shallow pan at 350 degrees F for 7-10 minutes first. Let cool, then chop and add to the batter.
 

The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.