English Plum Pudding aka Christmas Pudding is one of those super delicious, super impressive and super easy desserts. To Americans, the name can be fairly confusing because its not a pudding, its a cake…and there are no plums in it. You see, in England, pudding is a generic word for all sorts of dessert, and this particular dessert may once have included plums. Kind of like mincemeat used to have meat in it. Crazy English.
The first time I tasted plum pudding, I thought “where have you been my whole life?” I was already full of Christmas food and I was just going to have a sliver…you know… for the experience. Next thing I know, I’ve eaten an entire piece. No regrets.
So let me tell you why this cake is so freakin’ fantastic.
- First off, its incredibly moist, like crazy moist.
- Second, the flavor is intense and complex. Each bite is an experience.
- Third, its special. In England, Christmas Pudding is widely available. However, in the United States, it’s near impossible to find this dessert. It won’t be at your local bakery or on a restaurant menu. Homemade is really the only option.
- Fourth, you set it on fire before you eat it. How fun is that?
And yet, for some of you, I know that this dessert is a hard sell. After all, let’s be honest. This is a fruit cake. There, I said it. And I’m going to say some more. It is better after it ages. And it has raisins in it…lots of raisins. And for many people I know, that’s a deal killer right there. When did the raisin fall out of favor anyway? But I digress. I’m asking you to set all that aside and put a little faith in me and Christmas and give this unique dessert a try.
I am posting this 14 days before the big day, but if you want to make your own plum pudding, hurry up. Unfortunately, it may already be too late, if you can believe that. Here’s why. Plum pudding, like all fruit cakes, improves over time. I’ve heard stories of cakes made one year for consumption in the next. So if you want plum pudding for Christmas, you should make it yesterday, but no later than one week before Christmas so head to the store.
Adapted from a recipe by the fabulous and sainted Julia Child
CAKE
- 3 cups packed coarse fresh breadcrumbs from white bread (aka 1/2 lb. loaf, crusts on). I use Pepperidge Farm.
- 1 cup dark raisins
- 1 cup golden raisins
- 1 cup currants
- 1 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon mace
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 1/2 lb (2 sticks) melted unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 large eggs
- a few drops of almond extract
- 1/2 cup bitter orange marmalade
- 1/2 cup bourbon or dark rum
HARD SAUCE
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoons brandy or cognac
THE BIG FINALE
- 1/2 to 1 cup rum (or brandy) to flambé
SPECIALTY EQUIPMENT: 8-cup capacity Steamed Pudding Mold & small rack that fits into a tall stockpot. If you don’t have a steamed pudding mold, you can use a small bowl, but a pudding mold is inexpensive and pretty easy to find at a kitchen store or online. You will also need a small rack to keep the mold off the bottom of the pot. I struggled with this for years until I finally found a small rack like this one in an Asian Supermarket. Whatever you devise, your goal is to keep the metal of the pudding mold (or bowl) from making contact with the very hot metal stockpot bottom. Instead, you want the water to surround the bottom of the mold while it steams.
Tear bread into pieces and place in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to form rough crumbs. Empty the crumbs into very large bowl.
SIDE NOTE: Obviously this cake was made long before the invention of the food processor and you could chop all this by hand, but processing is soooo much easier.
Turn the fruit out into the bowl with the bread. Put all of the other ingredients into the food processor and pulse to mix.
Butter an 8-cup capacity steamed pudding mold (or medium-size bowl). Pack pudding into mold and top with a parchment round on surface.
Cover tightly either with the lid on the mold or with a plate and/or aluminum foil.
Do some laundry, watch some TV, check your blog. Go for a walk around the block even. Just check from time to time to make sure that your water has not evaporated below the 1/3 full level and add more if it does.
Thank you! We have Christmas Pudding on Christmas Day and leftovers on the Feast of Epiphany…Jan 6. Well this year no leftovers for the 3 Kings. So I searched for a new recipe after 27 years and found yours. Again thank you…it was just perfect. Moist, tasty and came out so beautifully from the mold. This now my “new tradition” Plum Pudding!
What do you serve it in. I always use a rather unattractive glass/pyrex baking dish because I am afraid that if I light it on a non-tempered dish, the plate might break… I don’t know where to go for a pretty tempered serving dish… Any thoughts??
Gosh. I really don’t know. I always use one of my everyday plates. Haven’t broken one yet.
– Heather
okay–maybe I am being overly cautious… Thanks
How many does it serve?
Well…that depends in part on the people and whether or not they just ate a big holiday meal right before. This is a very rich dessert, so when I serve it the pudding goes a long way. It would serve a minimum of 10. However, we end up slicing it quite thinly and so we have served as many as 16. It also makes excellent post Holiday treat leftovers and keeps a really long time as long as you keep it tightly wrapped in plastic. Best, H
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I love plum pudding. I am half british and I loved it as a little girl when my grandmother made it. Thank you for the recipe.
Love this pudding recipe, thanks
Traditional Christmas Pudding Recipes
Wonderful end to a special Christmas dinner. Next year I will use little less brandy to flambe. My dish was not deep enough and spilled over on the tablecloth. Might have been tragic but husband snuffed it out. All in all fun and delicious.
Hi Kristi,
Your post made me laugh. I also had a small flambe incident when the flame spilled over onto my kitchen counter. I blew out that part of the flame and the counter was unharmed. Next year, perhaps a little less wine before I start playing with fire.
Merry Christmas!
– Heather
I just made one of these – my third! My wife is an Anglofile and kept getting the “Crosse and Blackwell” canned puddings. (I suppose they’ll due in a pinch.) I used the recipe from an old Fannie Farmer cook book. Used suet instead of butter. This thing is gorgeous and MUCH better than the commercial variety. The whole house smells good!!! I can hardly wait to eat it.
Can I use a “tamales” pot to steam the pudding? the pot has a perforated lid that is set at a few inches from the bottom, then you set the Tamales on it to steam.
That might work really well, but I would still recommend filling the tamale pot such that the water came 1/3 of the way up the steamed pudding mold. That would mean that the perforated lid that sits in the bottom would also be completely submerged. Thanks for the suggestion. I may need to get a tamale pot now.
GORGEOUS! This is one of my fathers favorites from childhood.