christmas pudding bundt with Pimm's Winter

… unless you’ve been living under a tree for the past gerzillion years you’ll have known that last Sunday was the first day of advent and for a food-lover is traditionally known as stir up sunday… it’s the day that you should have made your christmas cake or christmas pud and, according to tradition, on this day you should share the baking experience with your loved ones, teaching your little ones all about the ingredients of the cake and giving everyone a chance to stir the cake batter together and make a wish… traditionally a gold coin is also placed into the pudding or cake on this day… as you know I was demo-cooking at the Lincoln Food and Gift Fair all day and as part of my demo I made my pudding and had the idea of asking the audience to come and give the pudding a stir and make a wish… it proved to be a very popular idea…

… so now you may be asking yourself why i’ve gone down the bundt-shaped route for this christmas pud when tradition would state that it should be cooked in a pudding basin…well you see I had to come directly back to London from the show which meant travelling with a bowl of fruity batter on my lap and as you can see from the pictures I made a large amount of pudding … so the only suitable vessel I could find when I got back to London was my bundt tin, so I poured the whole lot into it and very gently baked the pudding in a steamy oven…

christmas pudding bundt with Pimm’s Winter
as part of the sainsbury’s food blogger network I was sent all the juicy ingredients and a classic recipe for a Christmas pudding… of course i’ve adapted this a little as is my way but the basic recipe can be found here… one of my adaptations includes using a non-traditional alcohol and this is due to a visit to my Pimm’s client who gave me a bottle of Pimm’s Winter which is a special edition of their regular Pimm’s but made with brandy infused with spices and a hint of orange peel… could there be a more suitable liquid to use in a Christmas pud?

I have used a one kilo bag of mixed fruit and peel as I think this is an easier way to get in everything you’d want and it’s all mixed up together but you can be quite free-form here so chose the fruit as you please. This measurement is for 4 one-pint pudding basins or one large bundt tin.

1kg bag of mixed fruit and peel
225g golden caster sugar
225g vegetarian suet
110g plain flour
110g fresh white breadcrumbs
55g whole marcona almonds
55g shelled pistachios
zest of one lemon
5 free-range eggs – beaten
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
a bottle of Pimm’s Winter

you need a very large mixing bowl

the night before you make the pudding place the mixed fruit and peel into the bowl and liberally soak in the liquid of your choice – roughly 300ml and leave to soak overnight.

the next day add all the other ingredients plus to the fruit and stir together… this is the point where you need to make your wishes.  Make sure it’s thoroughly stirred and then pour it into your cake tin or pudding basins

cover the basins or tin with foil with a pleat down the centre and steam in either a water bath or steamer for 3 to 4 hours or until a skewer inserted comes out clean

my bundt tin was too large for the steamer so I placed it in a very low oven with a pan full of water at the bottom of the oven, at roughly 90C for 2 hours

the pudding will keep for up to three months wrapped in foil and placed somewhere dark and cool, each week you could drizzle with a tablespoon or so of Pimm’s Winter

to reheat on Christmas day simple place in the oven for half of the original cooking time on a low heat

I will keep you up to day with the progress and steeping of the pudding in future posts

eat and of course, enjoy!