In which I modify an old family recipe to be vegan friendly...

After successfully turning my hand to vegan Christmas cake I thought it was high time I adapted my old Christmas pudding recipe to be vegan too.

A few notes on the vegan changes in advance:

• For all the alcohol I used Barnivore to check if things were vegan (unless it specified on the bottle).

• I swapped out the eggs for two tablespoons of aquafaba per egg in the original recipe.

• I used vegetable suet which is easy to source in the UK. An alternative if it is hard to find is extra virgin coconut oil.

Ingredients

Makes enough for 3 pints (1.5 litres) worth of puddings. I made a small (1 pint pudding) and a big (2 pint pudding). The recipe scales easily based on the number of puddings you need to make.

• 75 g plain flour

• Pinch of salt

• 3 teaspoons mixed spice

• 150 g currants

• 150 g sultanas

• 150 g raisins

• 150 g mixed peel

• 150 g shredded vegetable suet

• 150 g soft brown sugar

• 150 g fine white breadcrumbs

• 75 g chopped blanched almonds*

• Grated rind of 1 lemon

• 90 ml (6 tablespoons) of aquafaba

• 45 ml (3 tablespoons) black treacle

• 15 ml (1 tablespoon) brandy†

• A little stout or almond milk for mixing‡

To make this recipe gluten free you would need to:

• Use gluten free flour.

• Replace the suet with coconut oil.

• Swap the breadcrumbs for gluten free breadcrumbs/almond flour.

*Removing the nuts would make the recipe nut free but I enjoy the extra texture.

†You will also need extra brandy if you wish to soak your fruit.

‡I change the stout every year, this year I went for Guinness Extra Stout as it was easy to confirm its vegan-ness.

How-To

1. A day ahead of baking, put the dried fruit in a mixing bowl and add a few tablespoons of brandy to the fruit. Leave overnight in a covered bowl.

2. Sieve together the flour, salt and spice and add to the fruit.

3. Add the suet, sugar, breadcrumbs, lemon rind and nuts then mix well.

4. Add aquafaba, brandy and treacle then stir. Slowly add stout/almond milk to make a soft clinging mixture.

5. Divide between 2 greased (vegetable oil/vegan spread works here) basins, leaving about 1 cm headspace.

6. Cover with a double thickness of greaseproof paper or tinfoil.

7. Put basins in a slow cooker and pour 2 pints (around a litre) of hot water around them (my slow cooker can only cook one pudding at a time so I put the other pudding in the fridge while I waited).

8. Heat on high for 1 hour then on low for 12 hours or alternatively on high for 7 hours.

9. To reheat: heat on high for 3 hours in 2 pints of hot water.

Now a Christmas pudding takes a little while to mature but this paragraph will be replaced with photos of the finished product when it is consumed in December 😋.

Tom Out!