Christmas Pudding

A family favourite!

Times

Preparation:

1½ hours

Cooking:

4 hours. Before serving, 5 minutes in the microwave or 1 hour on the stove.

Ingredients

• 675g of mixed fruit
• 125g prunes
• 125g seeded dates
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and coarsely grated
• ½ cup rum, sherry, brandy or whiskey
• 250g butter
• 1½ cups brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1½ cups plain flour
• 250g stale white bread torn into postage stamp-sized pieces
• Fruit juice

Method

1. Place bread pieces in a bowl.
2. Add fruit juice to the bread pieces a little at a time. Stir until all the bread is moist.
3. Chop dates and prunes to roughly the same size as the sultanas.
4. Combine all the fruit and rum in a second bowl and mix.
5. Put the bread and fruit mixtures aside.
6. Cream the butter and sugar in a third bowl.
7. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each egg until mixed.
8. Add the bread and fruit mixtures, and the sifted flour. Mix well.
9. Take a large, strong oven bag and split it down one side and across the closed end.
10. Open the oven bag out flat and place the pudding mixture in the centre.
11. Gather the sides together and tie the bag tightly with string.
    Do not leave any room for expansion.
12. Place in a large saucepan filled with water. Ensure that the pudding does not touch the saucepan otherwise the oven bag might melt and break.
13. Boil while covered for 4 hours.
    Check the saucepan every hour and add water if required.
14. Leave the pudding to cool. Once it has cooled, store the pudding in the refrigerator.

Before serving, either:

• Boil the pudding inside the oven bag for another hour, or
• Remove the pudding from the oven bag and cook it in the microwave for about 5 minutes on High.

Serve the pudding on its own or with some of the following:

• ice cream
• custard
• brandy cream sauce

Tips

• Buy the mixed fruit and peel that includes real cherries. The cherries add that festive touch of colour.
• Buy a variety of dried fruits and mix them yourself if you're unable to buy pre-mixed fruit.
  Try some of the following:
• sultanas
• currants
• raisins
• mixed peel
• glacè cherries
• glacè or crystallised ginger
• dried apricots or dried apples
• Let the bread and fruit mixtures stand for about a week to allow the rum to soak into the fruit. You can use just about any liquid to moisten the bread - even more rum! It takes approximately 30 minutes to prepare the bread and fruit.
• Make smaller puddings and freeze a couple for Winter.
  I find the large oven bags are a bit small and usually make three puddings with this recipe.
• Use oven bags that do not expand when heated.
  The oven bags in Australia are made of a crinkly plastic - a bit like cellophane - that hold their shape when heated. The oven bags I used in the United States were a much softer plastic that expanded. Two puddings had to be thrown out because the bags burst and the third pudding became a Christmas "pancake".
  I have never used pudding basins or pudding cloths, but these might be alternatives to oven bags.