Eliza Acton’s Christmas pudding
With Christmas fast approaching, The Knightstone Tearooms thought this would be a good time to share the Christmas pudding recipe they use at home!
This is a true Victorian classic, taken from Eliza Acton's 1845 book ‘Modern Cookery’, and described as ‘a remarkably light small rich pudding’. Even the legendary Carved Angel pudding follows the same recipe (their equivalent size costs approx. £20). Traditionally you should make this on Stir-Up Sunday, the last Sunday in November - 21 November this year - to give your pudding time to mature, and bake your Christmas cake on the same day. But a week or two later is fine!
Ingredients
75g each of plain flour and fresh white breadcrumbs
175g suet (vegetable suet if preferred)
175g each of raisins and sultanas (washed if necessary)
110g Cox-type apple (one large apple), peeled, cored and chopped small
150g soft dark brown sugar
50g candied peel (washed if very sticky)
Heaped teaspoon of mixed spice (or 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp mace)
Pinch of salt
Small wineglass of Cognac (or other brandy or liqueur e.g. Cointreau)
3 eggs, beaten lightly
Method
Mix everything together in a large mixing bowl, adding ingredients in the above order.
Stir thoroughly – and don’t forget to make a wish! We also add an old 6d wrapped in foil - the finder keeps the sixpence for a year and returns it on the next Stir-up Sunday.
Pack the mixture firmly into one large pudding bowl or several individual bowls; leave about 5mm space before the top, then cover the pudding layer with greaseproof paper. If using a plastic bowl, clip on the lid now; if using ceramic bowls, put on a lid of foil and tie a string handle around the top of the bowl so that you can lift it in and out of the pan.
Put the pudding(s) in a saucepan of boiling water, covering 2/3 of the depth of the bowl.
Turn down the heat, cover the pan with a lid and simmer for about 3 hours for large puddings or 1hour 30 minutes for mini-puddings. Check the water level regularly and top up as needed – if too low it won’t cook properly and if too high the fat will escape from the pudding. They’re cooked when nicely dark.
Store in a cool, dark cupboard till Christmas, then replace the foil and reboil for about an hour for large puddings, 30 minutes for mini-puddings. Serve hot with cream.