Baked Christmas Pudding

Though i was in idea to prepare traditional christmas plum cake, my Gemini mind as usual took a left turn and here you see is Christmas pudding. This is such a easy recipe and the mixing part takes less than 15 minutes. you can even prepare this pudding without soaking the dry fruits in rum or brandy.

You know that the traditional pudding calls for steaming, i did not have enough patience to steam. it was  impossible for me to steam for 3 or 5 hours by constantly checking! easier way is to bake them for an hour and half. i made this pudding in two batches, one for steaming and the other for baking. thats when i discovered baking takes less time and effort.

serves: 6
baking time: 90 minutes
preparation time: less than 20 minutes
200 gms = 1 cup
recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:

To Prepare fruit mix:

Candied peels mix - 100 gms
Candied peel of a citrus fruit - 50 gms
Dried Fig - 7
Dry grapes / kishmish - 50 gms
Dates - 7
Apricots - 5
Dry Black grapes / Sultana's - 50 gms
Glazed cherries - 50 gms
Tutti fruitti - 1/4 cup
Zest of 1 orange- 1 tbsp
Orange juice - 1/2 cup

Method:

Finely chop the candied peels into small chunks. chop all the other dry fruits, fig, kishmish, dates, apricots, sultana's, cherries and mix with the tutti fruitti and the zest of orange in a pan.

Mix orange juice with the dried fruits and place the pan in medium flame. keep stirring till the orange juice is completely absorbed. it may take uto 3-5 minutes. remove the pan from flame.

If you wish add 40 ml. of  Rum or Brandy, when the mix gets cooled down.

Ingredients for Pudding:

 Fruit mix - 400 gms / 2 cup's
 All purpose flour / Maida  - 200 gms / 1 cup
 Baking soda - 1 tsp
 Baking powder - 1 tsp
 Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp
 Nutmeg powder - a small pinch
 Dry Ginger powder - 1 tsp
 Brown sugar - 100 gms / 1/2 cup
 Butter - 100 gms
 Eggs - 2 small

Method:

Brush some melted butter in small aluminum bowl's in which the pudding is to be baked. line the bottom of the bowl's with butter paper and set aside.

Pre-heat the oven at 180C / 350F for about 10 mins.

Sieve the all purpose flour with baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon powder, nutmeg and dry ginger powder. sieve atleast twice so that all get mixed up evenly.

In a small pan, melt the brown sugar with a tbsp of water. need not caramelise. just the sugar crystals has to get dissolved. in another seperate pan, melt the butter and set aside.

In a wide bowl, put the 2 cup's of fruit mix and add flour to it. mix well with a wooden spoon or spatula, next add dissolved brown sugar and melted butter. mix well. finally break in egg's one at a time and mix well. 

Once the pudding mix is ready, divide and transfer to the small individual greased aluminium bowls. fill the bowl's 3/4th so that there is enough space for the pudding to rise while baking.

Finally grease a aluminum foil sheet with butter and place the greased side facing the pudding and cover the pudding bowls. With a thread tie over the neck of the bowl so that the aluminium foil is tightly tied to the neck of the bowl.

Now bake the pudding at 180C for about 90 minutes, till a tooth pick inserted to the centre of the pudding comes out clean. if you are placing a large bowl of pudding, time may differ.

In case if you are interested in steaming the pudding the traditional way, you can steam in a large pan of boiling water or in a wide pressure cooker filled with boiling water. place a small bowl turned upside down in the pressure cooker and pour 6 cup's of boiling water and place the pudding bowl(with aluminium foil tied) carefully over the bowl turned upside down. close the pressure cooker and do not put the weight/whistle. steam the pudding for about 3-4 hours in medium flame. every 1 hour check the water level and keep adding boiling water so that half of the pudding bowl is in boiling water always. steam till the pudding is done. check by inserting a toothpick to the centre of the pudding comes out clean.

Notes:

Once the pudding is baked, remove the pudding from oven and place on a wet towel, so that it easily comes out of the bowl when pudding get cooled down.

This pudding keeps well for a week after baking, if you want to mature the pudding, keep adding 1/2 tsp of rum or brandy over the pudding  once in 2 days.

This pudding is served along with custard, so you can try serving that way too.

This is such a easy pudding recipe and it turns out perfect. just follow the ingredients. the ratio is 2 cups of dry fruits : 1 cup flour : 1/2 cup sugar : 1/2 cup butter.