Christmas colchester pudding | Fruit recipes | Jamie Oliver (2024)

FAQs

Can I use butter instead of suet in Christmas pudding? ›

My family recipe for Christmas pudding has melted butter instead of suet and it is flourless. It replaces all the flour with fine breadcrumbs.

To avoid mould, we recommend you wrap the cooled pudding in plastic wrap and seal it in a freezer bag or airtight container.

Yes! With the right recipe, you can save heaps of time and effort by cooking your pudding in the microwave. Cooking traditional Christmas puddings involves hours and hours of boiling (at least 6 hours, and sometimes much more), which not everyone has time for in the busy festive season.

Follow your recipe for the steaming times of your pudding, but if you do need to check then you can insert a skewer through the foil and parchment to check that it comes out clean. Simply patch up the hole with more foil if your pudding needs more time to steam.

If you can't find suet then we have found that grated vegetable shortening (such as Trex, Crisco or Copha) is a good substitute. To grate the shortening firstly freeze a stick or block of it until firm but not solid (this usually takes about 30 minutes).

Vegetable shortening: Vegetable shortening has a mild flavor like suet and hardens in the refrigerator, making it simple to shred and add to foods that call for shredded suet. Shortening consists of sunflower oil, palm oil, and wheat flour, which create a similar, crumbly texture to suet.

To prevent water from getting into the mixture, which would make the pudding soggy, make sure you secure the foil with string and fold the foil back over the string.

Although alcohol is the key ingredient in traditional recipes, you can always make alcohol-free Christmas pudding using the finest fruit pulps or juice instead of apple juice, grape, cherry or peach juice. You can also use Darjeeling tea to give your pud a sweet-subtle aroma with refreshing floral notes.

Once the pudding is cooked, remove from the pan and set aside to cool. The pudding can be stored for up to two years in a cool, dry place. To serve, reheat the pudding by steaming again (in the same way) for two hours, or until hot all the way through.

The pan or steamer attachment should be covered with a lid as this creates the steamy enviroment in which the pudding cooks, as well as trying to limit the evaporation of water from the pan and the condensation that will build up in the kitchen.

Is it better to boil or steam Christmas pudding? ›

Ideally we would suggest that when the pudding is made it is steamed for 8 hours (the combined time of the first and second steamings) as the steaming is important for the flavour of the pudding. The pudding can then be microwaved to reheat it on Christmas Day.

As for all puddings, it should be stored in a cool, dry place until Christmas Day. For the US our preference would be to use Pyrex mixing bowls for steaming Christmas puddings.

Can you over-steam a Christmas pudding? While the pudding won't dry out if it's steamed for too long, some of the ingredients inside may be spoiled by being overcooked.

According to experts, the secret to Christmas pudding perfection is to heat it to precisely 71 °C. If it gets hotter than 89 °C, the sugars within the fruits in the pudding start to caramelise. So no matter how luxurious its ingredients are, your precious pud will taste bitter.

After you have steamed and cooled your pudding, replace the foil with a freshly buttered piece to keep it moist and store in a cool, dark place, or the fridge, until you are ready to reheat it on Christmas day.

Yes you can use grated butter if you prefer. In the same way as Delia prepares quick flaky pastry, its easier to grate it if its been frozen for 45 minutes first and use a little of the flour to keep the gratings separate.

Suet is the essential fat in many British puddings, both sweet and savoury, as well as stuffings and dumplings, mincemeat at Christmastime and – of – course suet pastry. It makes some of my most favourite British foods. It's role is to enrich and lubricate mixtures, producing a good crust in steamed suet puddings.

Mix the almonds, apples, candied peel, nutmeg, raisins, flour, breadcrumbs, light muscovado sugar, eggs and 2 tbsp brandy or cognac in a large bowl. Holding the butter in its wrapper, grate a quarter of it into the bowl, then stir everything together.