Does Christmas Pudding count for Homemade Bread day?

I know, I know, I said I was going to create something new for homemade bread day. But I baked eight loaves of Buckwheat Cranberry bread (a variation on Buckwheat Cherry posted here) on Sunday, and have four dozen hamburger buns and ten loaves of beer poolish bread to make today and bake tomorrow, and I wanted to get my Christmas pudding done, so here it is.

This is an old recipe I've been using for many years. I like it for a couple of reasons:

It uses butter instead of lard or suet so it's good for the vegetarian members of the family
There is fresh chopped apple and a lot of mixed dried fruit, without any of the candied, dyed 'fruit'
There's a healthy dram of good Scotch whisky in it :)

I like to serve this warm with a nice lemon sauce, but of course it goes equally well with hard sauce, brandied cream or whatever you prefer.

I'll be making smaller ones too (for gifts or for sale), and steaming them in large soup mugs from the dollar store.

Lazy Loafer's Blog
Log in or register to post comments

aren't any rules for the Home Made Bread Day Challenge except for the ones you put on yourself. Fruit cake works for me and this one looks wonderful. Well done and happy baking you Lazy Loafer:-)

I forgot about the 'no rules' rule! :)

Guess what I have in the oven? Fruitcake!! We must have been channeling our fruitcake desires.

Yours looks wonderful! I hope mine turns out as well as yours. First time making fruit cake for me. I found a great recipe with sourdough and real fruit. No candied junk for me either although I must admit that my fruit isn't all organic as the recipe calls for.

Here is the link to mine:

http://artistta.blogspot.ca/2011/12/real-food-christmas-basket-sourdough.html?m=1

You mean channeling our inner fruitcakes? :)

I don't usually make fruit cake, just the plum pudding. But the thought of a sourdough fruitcake is intriguing; thanks for the link!

I couldn't remember it off the top of my head!

Well they look pretty nice. I baked them in little ceramic loaf pans that I had left over from another year when we made some kind of homemade gifts. I will put up a blog post with pictures.

Now here is a dumb question... what's the difference between plum pudding and fruit cake? I have never understood the dif.

Good question (not a dumb one!). I think the biggest difference is that pudding is steamed, while cake is baked. The use of suet instead of butter is supposed to be a difference too (this is sometimes called a suet pudding), but I don't like to use it as I said. So maybe mine is a Christmas pudding cake!

I have some fruit left over from my fruitcakes and an elderly lady that is a very old family friend asked my hubby if I would make a Xmas pudding. I found a recipe that I think I might like but I am interested in yours since it doesn't used "faux" fruit. I haven't ever made one of those either so all this fruit cake/pudding business is new territory.

It's pretty easy, really. Much easier than your Christmas Cake recipe! Note that the original recipe used mixed candied peel, but I just add more dried fruit, particularly chopped apricots and cranberries. Sometimes blueberries or dried cherries too.

Scottish Christmas Pudding

2/3 cup	Plain flour
1/3 cup	Brown sugar, firmly packed
2/3 cup	Breadcrumbs
¾ tsp	Allspice
½ tsp	Ground cinnamon
1/6 tsp	Ground nutmeg
1 pinch	Salt
1/3 cup	Butter
¼ cup	Mixed candied peel
1 cup	Raisins
¾ cup	Sultanas
2/3 cup	Peeled and grated or chopped apple
¼ cup	Pitted prunes, chopped into raisin-sized pieces
½ large	Lemon, juice and rind
2	Medium eggs
1/8 cup	Golden syrup
¼ cup	Scotch whisky

Makes one 2-pint pudding, or two 1-pint puddings, 1 pound each.

Notes: Composition of spice or fruit ingredients can be varied to own taste, but ensure over-all weight is same (390 grams); use Lyles Golden Syrup.

Mix the flour, brown sugar, breadcrumbs, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Blend in the butter and mix in the peel, raisins and sultanas.

Peel the apple and either grate it down to the core or chop it up finely and add it to the mixture. Chop the prunes into pieces about the size of raisins and mix them in. Add the lemon juice, finely grated lemon rind, eggs, golden syrup and whisky. Mix thoroughly but do not overmix and pulp the fruit.

Pour into suitable basins, leaving space for expansion of the pudding. Cover the basins and steam for 6 hours. When cooked, remove it from the basin, take off any coverings to avoid condensation on the pudding, and put it aside on a wire tray to cool. You may wish to leave it in the basin to be handy for reheating and serving. When completely cool, wrap it in cling film and/or foil and store it in a cool, dry place.

Before serving, steam the pudding for ½ hour. Then turn it out onto a hot plate and sprinkle it lightly with fine sugar. You may wish to pour a spoonful of whisky over the pudding and flambé it. Then serve the pudding hot with whisky butter sauce, whipped cream or custard.

Properly prepared and stored this pudding will keep at least a year. It should be sealed in an airtight container and kept in a cool dry place, refrigerated or frozen. This pudding matures and improves with keeping.

It looks great!

That's some lovely treat! Great alternative for a fruitcake for those people without an oven like me. It is one of the more expensive items in the hotel especially when set alight with brandy and served with custard!