Christmas Puddings
In which stir-up Sunday comes early and on the wrong day of the week...
Although I realise stir-up Sunday is later than this week (and that I made these on a Monday night), it is always good to make your puddings early so that you can top them up with lots of of brandy (feeding the pudding.) Also I always used to make Christmas puddings on Remembrance Day with my school choir.
My mum has always made the best Christmas pudding (as far as i'm concerned) and here is the recipe. This recipe is designed for a Slow cooker.
Apologies to members of CAOS expecting a recipe for tonight's cake but the recipe for mincemeat tart is:
Obtain mincemeat and pastry.
Place pastry in dish.
Fill with mincemeat.
Bake.
UPDATE: Mincemeat tarts came out like this :)
Mincemeat Tart
Ingredients
50g plain flour
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons mixed spice
100g currants
100g sultanas
100g raisins
100g mixed peel
100g shredded suet
100g soft brown sugar
100g fine white breadcrumbs
50g chopped blanched almonds*
grated rind of 1 lemon
2 eggs, beaten
2x15ml spoons black treacle
1x15ml spoon brandy
a little stout/ale or milk for mixing†
*The nuts are really important, it's what makes this pudding that bit better than anyone elses :P
†I change the stout every year, this year I went for Marston's Oyster Stout
How-To
Sieve together flour, salt and spice, add all dry ingredients and mix well.
Add eggs, brandy and treacle with enough liquid to make a soft clinging mixture.
Divide between 2 greased basins, leaving about 1 cm headspace.
Cover with a double thickness of greased greaseproof paper or tinfoil.
Put basins in a slow cooker and pour 1 pint of hot water around them.
Heat on high for 1 hour then low for 12 hours or alternatively on high for 7 hours.
To reheat: heat on high for 3 hours.
In the slowcooker
Almost done!
It's double recipe week this week as on Thursday there is the World Famous ManSSAGO Pudding Party!* Stay tuned on Thursday for the desserts and the recipe!
*May not be actually famous worldwide!
Tom Out!