English Christmas pudding (Plum Pudding)

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Votes: 2

Recipe author: Anna Olson, pastry chef and TV show host

Christmas pudding, or plum pudding, is the main treat of the holiday table in Great Britain, which, according to the Anglican church tradition, always began to be prepared several weeks before Christmas. It is customary for all family members to participate in the process of kneading the pudding. Everyone takes turns stirring it clockwise and making a wish that should come true in the coming year. Dried fruits, nuts and spices are mixed with fat, eggs, flour and sugar, poured with strong alcohol and infused. Then it is steamed for several hours in a special round pudding mold. Thanks to the alcohol contained in the pudding, it can be stored for quite a long time and this only makes it more seasoned and tastier. But you don’t have to let the pudding sit for a long time; it turns out quite tasty right after cooking. The pudding is usually served with custard and decorated with a sprig of holly - one of the Christmas symbols in Western Europe.

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Time: 6 o'clock. Difficulty: medium Servings: 12-14

The recipes use measuring containers with a volume of: 1 cup (tbsp.) - 240 ml. 3/4 cup (st.) - 180 ml. 1/2 cup (st.) - 120 ml. 1/3 cup (st.) - 80 ml. 1/4 cup (st.) - 60 ml. 1 tablespoon (tbsp) - 15 ml. 1 teaspoon (tsp) - 5 ml.

Stir-up Sunday

Holidays cannot be suddenly introduced “by decree,” but their attributes appear over time. For several centuries after Trinity, on the 25th Sunday of the year, an extraordinary ritual is performed. In every Anglican church they offer a prayer, which is a kind of permission to knead the pudding, and Sunday is called that - kneading. In every home, according to a family recipe, a Christmas pudding is prepared in November from a killer amount of dried fruit, nuts and lard (lard), which ripens before Christmas.

How we mixed the pudding

Yes, I did a symbolic kneading Sunday. The whole family participated in the actual kneading process. We even managed to make wishes on Skype! They stirred the pudding from east to west, according to British canons, in honor of the wise men and the baby Jesus.

I couldn’t find a sixpence silver coin, so I decided not to put symbols in the pudding: a ring for a wedding, a bone for long hikes and travels, a button for bachelors and old maids. But you can if you want.

While mixing, I wanted to eat the dough with a spoon! What an aroma was spreading throughout the house...

GingerPage

“The Christmas pudding was displayed on a silver platter in all its glory: a real football, not a pudding. In the center of it, twigs and berries of holly rose like a victory flag, and red and blue flames danced around. Everyone unanimously greeted the appearance of the pudding with joyful shouts.”

Agatha Christie's "The Rape of the Royal Ruby" from "The Adventure of a Christmas Pudding and a Selection of Refreshments"

This year I decided to approach the New Year's mood thoroughly and not bury it under a pile of small things, which by the end of December is usually a cartload and a small cart. A sure way to get yourself in the mood for the holidays is with English Christmas stories. Better than a hundred years ago, with a detective plot and mouth-watering descriptions of holiday dinners, so that you can easily imagine the taste of a juicy baked turkey, the heat of a blazing fireplace, and the snowy pastoral landscape outside the window. In general, everything that was previously considered philistine happiness, and now – quiet family solitude. Agatha Christie is ideal in this regard.

Of the Christmas detective stories written by Agatha Christie, she liked the story “The Theft of the Royal Ruby” more than the others. An old English manor, Christmas Eve and the mystery of the stolen family jewel. According to Christie, this wonderful story allowed her to "indulge in the delightful memories of childhood Christmas holidays."

In the story of how Hercule Poirot unravels one crime and prevents another, Christie wove everything that Christmas was filled with during her childhood: stockings with gifts, a decorated Christmas tree, a snowman outside the window, mistletoe branches over the fireplace, midnight service in the church. And, of course, a big Christmas dinner, the highlight of which is spicy pudding surrounded by flames.

Pudding is a classic example of a British food that is so often mocked. Outwardly unprepossessing, hopelessly brown, it conceals a lot of flavors and is capable of surprising. There are at least 15 ingredients in Christmas pudding. At the beginning of the 20th century, they were brought from different parts of colonial Britain, so the dessert was more than just an iconic dish of the festive table - it was a symbol of national unity and the gastronomic embodiment of the power of the empire, “on which the sun never sets.”

In the Russian translation of “The Theft of the Royal Ruby” the pudding is simply called pudding, but in the original it is called Christmas plum pudding, although there are no plums in it. There are several versions of why plum is added to the name, but they all lead to one thing - the English “plum” in relation to desserts means an additive in the form of dried fruits, nuts, zest, spices and other things.

What gives the pudding a special status is the cooking process itself, which takes many hours and subjugates the entire kitchen. It takes half an hour to knead the dough, and then you have to watch for five to eight hours so that the water from the pan in which the pudding is cooked does not boil away (yes, the pudding is not baked, but boiled). Usually the dessert is eaten with a sweet sauce, for example, based on butter and brandy (its recipe is below), but regular cream whipped with sugar and rum can also play this role.

“Quite right, sir. I made my own pudding recipe, the same one I've been using for many, many years. Mrs. Lacey, I must tell you, offered to buy the pudding in London to make my work easier. “Oh, no,” I objected, “you are very kind, madam, but store-bought Christmas pudding cannot compare with homemade.”

Christmas pudding is usually prepared three to four weeks before the holiday, but in general it can be stored for years: over time, the pudding gains more character, taste and aroma, and its spiciness becomes deeper and more layered. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, says the best pudding she's ever tasted was three years old. And this is quite likely.

“A real Christmas pudding should be made several weeks before the holiday and refrigerated; The longer it is aged – within reasonable limits, of course – the tastier it becomes. I remember that when I was a child and we went to church every Sunday, we always waited for a certain prayer, which served as a signal to start making puddings. On Sunday prayers were said, and no later than the following week my mother would make Christmas pudding.”

Elizabeth Gilbert

However, the pudding is also good fresh. The point “cook well in advance” is often neglected. Even in King Lacy, where Poirot celebrated Christmas and where the legacy of the past was especially revered, the pudding was cooked only three days before the holiday, which, I must say, greatly saddened the estate cook.

By the way, pudding is suitable not only as the end of a festive dinner, but also as a gift. In this case, it is better to cook it in nice ceramic forms and include written instructions on how to reheat it and how to make the sauce for it.

(Recipe from here)

English Christmas pudding

Compound:

Ingredients lard – 170 gr. (sold in markets, if it’s beef – great, I had pork) Fresh white bread – 170 gr. Flour – 120 gr. Baking powder – 0.5 teaspoon Brown sugar – 250 gr. Small black raisins without seeds – 250 gr. Small golden seedless raisins – 250 gr. (for example, sultanas) Currant raisins – 250 gr. (any other is possible, the main thing is that it is small and seedless. The pudding should have three varieties of raisins of different colors. I had malayar, afghan and sabza) Candied citrus peels (lemon or orange) – 60 gr. Apple – 1 pc. Orange – 0.5 pcs. Almonds – 30 gr. Nutmeg, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, ginger, cloves - 0.5 teaspoons of each spice Salt - 0.5 teaspoons Eggs - 3 pcs. Dark beer – 100 gr. (I had ale) Whiskey – 50 ml

Preparation:

1. Grate or finely chop the lard. Crumble the bread crumb (without crust). Peel and coarsely grate the apple. Finely chop the citrus peels. Squeeze the juice from the orange and grate the zest. Chop the almonds.

2. In a large bowl, mix the lard with flour, baking powder and spices. Add bread crumbs, salt and sugar to them.

3. Add all the raisins, grated apple, chopped nuts, chopped candied citrus peels, orange juice and zest to the mixture.

4. Pour in dark beer and whiskey. Mix.

In England, people use pudding to tell fortunes: to find a ring in a piece - for a wedding, a button or thimble - for a bachelor's life, a bird's bone - for good luck and travel, a coin - for wealth and prosperity. If there are no small children at the table and you are not afraid of damaging your teeth, you can add these inedible items to the dough.

“Carefully, almost apprehensively, Poirot began to take his portion. He ate one spoon. The pudding was amazing! He ate the second one. Something clinked on his plate. He pierced the pudding with a fork. Bridget, sitting to his left, came to his aid. “You got something, Monsieur Poirot,” she said, “I wonder what it is?” Poirot separated the small silver object from the raisins that had stuck to it. “O-oh!” - Bridget exclaimed. - This is a “bachelor button”! Monsieur Poirot received the “bachelor button”

5. Beat the eggs until foamy and add to the mixture. To stir thoroughly.

According to tradition, all family members should mix the pudding mixture in turn and make wishes at this moment. If it’s completely according to the rules, then you need to mix from East to West in honor of the three wise men who visited the baby Jesus.

“Everyone living in the house had to come to the kitchen to stir the pudding and make a wish. This is the ancient custom, sir, and I always adhere to it.”

David Suchet as Hercule Poirot stirs the Christmas pudding (Agatha Christie's Poirot series, 1991)

6. The pudding is cooked in a water bath, so you need to choose a heat-resistant dish that will fit easily into the pan. Grease the dish with oil and fill it only three-quarters full with the dough - the baking powder will cause it to rise.

7. Cover the molds with the dough first with parchment paper, then with foil, tie tightly with thick thread so that water does not get inside the mold. Using the same thread, tie the shape like a box with a cake, so that later it – hot – can be easily removed from the boiling water.

8. Fill a saucepan with water, bring to a boil and place the mold with the dough in it - the water should reach no higher than the middle of the mold.

9. Cook: liter pudding – 8 hours, half liter – 5 hours, 125-150 ml – 2 hours. Add boiling water periodically.

10. Take out the mold, remove the foil and paper, let the pudding cool completely, put it in the refrigerator for 6 hours. In general, the dessert is already ready and can be served. Now the most crucial moment is to remove the pudding from the mold. To prevent it from breaking, you need to run a thin sharp knife along the edge of the mold and carefully turn the pudding over onto a plate.

11. If there is time for ripening, it is better to continue the process: cover the pudding with parchment paper and tie tightly. Cover the top with several layers of gauze and tie again. Store in a cool place until the holiday.

12. On the day of the holiday, remove the gauze (leave the parchment paper), cover with foil, tie and boil in boiling water for two hours. After this, let it cool completely.

13. Pudding is usually served garnished with a sprig of holly, fruit, berries or burning - for this, it is doused with strong alcohol (whiskey, cognac or brandy) and set on fire. While the fire is burning, you need to make a wish.

“When the pudding was safely placed on the table, she let out a sigh of relief, and she quickly began to pass the plates, on which the flames were still licking impressive portions. “Make a wish, Monsieur Poirot,” Bridget shouted, “hurry before the fire goes out.”

Butler Peverell brings flambéed Christmas pudding to the festive table (Agatha Christie's Poirot series, 1991)

Sweet sauce

“A little sauce for the pudding, Monsieur Poirot?” Poirot gratefully poured the sauce over his piece. “Borrowed my best brandy again, huh, Em?” — the colonel asked good-naturedly from the other end of the table. Mrs. Lacey's eyes sparkled. “You see, dear,” she said, “Mrs. Ross insists on it.” She says that the quality of the sauce depends on the type of brandy."

Butter – 90 gr. Powdered sugar – 90 gr. Brandy or rum – 3-5 tablespoons Orange juice – 1 tablespoon Orange zest

Beat the butter until soft, gradually add powdered sugar, zest and juice. Then add brandy drop by drop, whisking the butter each time. If you add alcohol all at once, the sauce will curdle. Place in pan and cool. Serve with pudding.

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We cooked it...

I approached the preparation of pudding thoroughly. I prepared a form, natural snow-white fabric, and ribbon for tying (well, without ribbon!). The baby will have to lie alone for more than a month and wait in the wings.

Speckled Dick I had the experience of making Speckled Dick pudding in lard, another iconic British dish. Look who's interested! Dick is served with the most delicate cream anglaise .

For cooking, I built a kind of water bath - I took water into a saucepan and placed a metal strainer with a comfortable handle, specially designed for such purposes.

The pudding was carefully wrapped and took what seemed like an eternity to cook. For exactly four hours we enjoyed the Christmas aromas of dried fruits and a mixture of spices.

Recipe ingredients:

Pudding

• 1 tbsp. light raisins
• 1 tbsp. dark raisins
• 1 tbsp. walnut
• 0.5 tbsp. candied orange peel
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp. salt
• 0.5 tsp. ground allspice
• 0.5 tbsp. brandy or dry sherry
• 5 large eggs
• 1 tbsp. Sahara
• 1 tbsp. milk
• 2 tbsp. flour
• 2 tbsp. breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp. (230 g.) butter, melted
• 1 tsp. soda

English cream

• 1 tbsp. low-fat cream 10%
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp. l. Sahara
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Let's set it on fire!

“And burn it with a blue flame”... You have probably heard this well-established expression many times, and even said it yourself. Flambéing (flambé) is a method in which a scorched or burning dish is served. Actually, it is not the product itself that burns, but the strong drink that is poured over what was prepared with love. You can flambe anything, from fruits to meat.

Before you set fire to the pudding in front of your guests, it’s worth practicing on something less expensive. The very first thing that comes to mind is bananas and pancakes. There are two ways to proceed. The first is to pour the heated drink over it and set it on fire. Water the second one with the already burning drink.

Catch this sign if you want to become a professional arsonist:

Don't forget to take care of the tray, dish or plate. Do I need to remind you that you need to use fire-resistant, non-combustible materials?