Boiled Christmas Pudding

It’s often steaming hot in Australia on Christmas day, but the traditional Boiled Christmas Pudding – served hot with custard – is still on plenty of Christmas dessert menus.

This Boiled Christmas Pudding recipe is one based on my Nana’s and Great Grandmother’s recipes, and it’s on my Christmas must-do list every year.

Christmas Pudding: memories by the mouthful

The first mouthful of Christmas Pudding transports me straight back to my early Christmases, sitting around fold-up tables with my cousins at my Nan and Pop Mac’s house.

The air-conditioner would be working hard and my mum and her four sisters would be working even harder to help Nan deliver a hot Christmas lunch with all the trimmings.

I have so many lovely memories of these magical Christmas days, and I can still see Nan pulling out the huge pudding wrapped in its cloth from the pot of boiling water.

I’m sure many of my cousins only ate the pudding to try and find one of the sixpences which had been pushed into the pudding (and would be swapped for a modern-day coin by Nan).

But I always savoured the pudding itself, served with a generous amount of custard.

Plum Pudding: a Christmas tradition

Christmas pudding, also known as plum pudding, is a Christmas tradition from the UK.

It apparently originated in the 14th century then fell out of favour before being brought back into vogue by King George in the early 1700s. Thanks, King George!

And thanks also to the ancestors who brought this tradition across about 17,000 kilometres to Australia, and then persisted with it despite it not really fitting with the local climate.

Christmas with Nana Ling

Just as I remember wonderful Christmas days with my Nan and Pop Mac, my mum remembers her early Christmases with Nana Ling (Nan Mac’s mum). She recalls their hot Christmas lunch prepared in a wood fuel stove (sans air conditioning!).

She often talks about Nana Ling’s Christmas cake decorated with tiny silver cachous, and the dusty floorboards of Nana Ling’s house on a property near Maitland.

My Christmas pudding tradition

Just before Christmas in 2017, I pulled out Nana Ling’s handwritten recipe books for the first time to have a go at cooking up one of the recipes.

I found this plum pudding recipe and uploaded it, along with my first successful attempt at cooking a plum pudding, to Instagram. It was then that the idea for this blog started to grow.

I’m so pleased that I’m cooking this pudding again this year and adding it to my growing collection of recipes on the blog.

The recipe: Boiled Christmas Pudding

This recipe is based on a recipe found in Nana Ling’s handwritten recipe books and my Nan Mac’s recipe.

The original Nana Ling recipe is pictured below, however keep scrolling to the end of the post for the tested, tweaked and updated recipe.

Nan’s Pudding: the ingredients

To make this pudding, you’ll need:

• butter
• brown sugar
• eggs
• breadcrumbs (make it yourself by finely chopping day old bread)
• mixed peel
• currants
• sultanas
• raisins
• glace cherries
• slivered almonds
• plain flour
• salt
• bicarb soda
• mixed spice
• vanilla essence
• brandy.

The precise quantities can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

While Christmas Pudding is also known as Plum Pudding, you might notice that there are no plums in this ingredient list.

Plum pudding does not actually contain any plum!

Instead, since Victorian times the dried plums have been replaced with raisins and other dried fruits.

Mixing up the Christmas Pudding

This is the easy part.

Simply beat the butter and sugar and then add eggs one at a time, continuing to beat after each addition.

You then add the sifted flour, salt, bicarb soda and mixed spice and beat on low speed until combined.

Next, add bread crumbs, dried fruit and almonds and stir with a spoon to combine. Finally, mix in the vanilla extract and brandy and stir again to combine.

Traditionally, everyone in the house should take turns stirring the pudding three times to make a wish!

Preparing the Pudding cloth

You can buy a pudding cloth from a store like Spotlight or simply buy some calico cloth.

Soak the cloth in boiling water and then wring out excess water. Use gloves or a clean tea towel wrapped around the pudding cloth to prevent the risk of burning your hands.

Spread out the pudding cloth on your kitchen bench.

When your pudding mixture is ready, sprinkle about 1/3 cup plain flour in a 30-40cm diameter circle in the middle of the cloth. Make sure the flour is most concentrated towards centre and lighter towards the outside of the circle, then rub the flour into the cloth.

Place the pudding mixture in the centre of the cloth and wrap the cloth around it while forming a round shape.

Secure the gathered edges as close to the pudding as possible with kitchen string. Secure well and make sure there’s a loop so you can hand the pudding to dry out once it’s cooked.

Boiling the pudding

You’ll need a large boiler or saucepan to boil up the pudding.

Fill it 2/3 – 3/4 with water. You want enough room for the pudding to be able to move around in the water as it’s cooking.

Gently lower the pudding into the boiling water and boil for 3 1/2 hours.

Make sure the water continues to boil and you keep it topped up with additional water if necessary. Boil a kettle and add boiling water rather than cold water from the tap to ensure a continuous boil.

Once it’s cooked, hook the string from where you’ve secured the pudding cloth into a wooden spoon and gently lift from the boiling water.

Hold over a sink or somewhere that the pudding can drip a little. Within a minute or so you should see the pudding cloth drying in spots.

Hang the pudding somewhere safe and dry for one day.

After a day of drying out, take the pudding down.

Cut open the ties and take a look at the top of the pudding. You should see a skin has formed around the pudding. Scrape away any excess flour from the top of calico pudding cloth and tie to secure again.

Leave the pudding out (no need to hang again) in a dry place for a couple of days to dry out completely.

Store pudding in fridge (still in cloth) until ready to be re-heated.

Re-heating the pudding on Christmas Day

To re-heat your pudding, first take it out of the fridge and leave to stand for 6-12 hours.

Immerse the pudding in a pot of boiling water for one hour and then hang for half an hour before cutting away ties and gently unwrapping the pudding. Invert onto a serving plate and enjoy with custard.

When to make your Christmas Pudding

Traditionally, Christmas pudding is made five weeks before Christmas – that’s on or after the last Sunday before the first Advent.

However, you can make it up to a few days before Christmas. Alternatively, make it up early and store it whole in the fridge for up to a couple of months in the fridge weeks or up to a year in the freezer.