Food with passion: My Nanny Farrell’s Christmas Pudding

John Paul Kennedy is a self-taught cook and an avid fan of collecting cookery books with a passion for good old-fashioned home cooking.

His passion for proper family cooking stems from his TWO Grandmothers, who were both excellent cooks, one of whom was a trained chef.

JP promises to bring us plenty of family-inspired recipes and tasty treats while showing us how to get the basics right.

It’s only over the past few years that I have rediscovered a nostalgic love for Christmas puddings and making them!

This is a recipe inspired by my Nanny Farrell, my Mam’s mother, who was a trained chef and excellent baker.

While it’s very easy to make, my key tip is to right down the list of ingredients and tick each one of as you pop it into your shopping basket, as some of the ingredients, namely all of the dried fruits are not ones I normally store in my pantry!

Give yourself a day when you don’t have to leave the house as they do need to steam /bake for a minimum of 6 hours or even longer if possible.

I’m planning to make mine this weekend, with Sunday 25 November officially being Stir Up Sunday.

The tradition is to make your puddings 5 weeks before Christmas and while there are many versions of pudding recipes, traditionally they have 13 ingredients, one to represent each disciple!

I believe good old fashioned Christmas Plum Puddings are making a real comeback!

I can’t wait to make mine the weekend after next.

Don’t forget to make a wish as your stir your puddings!

You can mix up all of the ingredients, cover and leave in the fridge for a day or two ahead of steaming, really gives all the flavours time to develop and infuse and your puddings will taste better for it!

Puddings are always best if you can make them 5-6 weeks before Christmas, so now is the best time to make them and bring a little early Christmas joy into your kitchen and homes.

Ingredients: 

• 225g plain flour
• 375g soft dark brown sugar
• 200ml of stout / Guinness
• 1 teaspoon of ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon of Nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon
• 100g chopped almonds
• 225g Shredded Suet
• 200g Sultanas
• 200g Currants
• 200g Raisins
• 175g Mixed Peel
• 200g White Breadcrumbs
• 4 eggs
• 1 small cooking apple, peeled, cored and chopped
• Juice and Zest of one orange
• 50ml of whiskey

Method:

 

1. Grease with butter two pudding basins, this recipe makes two 600ml puddings.
2. In a large bowl add in the flour, mixed spice, nutmeg. Then add in the sultanas, currants, raisins, almonds, mixed peel, apple suet and sugar and mix together.
3. In a separate bowl mix the eggs, orange juice, stout / Guinness and whiskey.
4. Stir this into the dry ingredients and mix until all well combined.
5. Add the orange zest and give the mixture one last good mix.
6. If you can leave overnight to allow the flavours to infuse and the dried fruits to plump up! Cover the bowl with a clean, dry tea towel and leave overnight.
7. Preheat your oven to 150 degrees /300F or Gas mark 2. Divide the mixture between your two greased pudding basins.
8. Cover each pudding basin generously with tin foil but leave room at the top to allow the puddings to expand.
9. Place into a baking tray and fill with some water, coming up a third of the way on both pudding basins and place into your oven and oven steam for 6 hours. I used this method it last year and found it much easier than steaming in a steamer as it’s easier to keep an eye on and you don’t need to replenish the water as often – they came out lovely and dark too!
10. Once cooked, place a circle of parchment paper on each pudding and wrap in a dry cloth or tea towel and store in a cool dry place. I usually store mine on the top shelf in my wardrobe.
11. On Christmas day before serving steam for another two hours before serving.

My beloved Mam and Dad were huge fans of Christmas puddings served with lashings of freshly whipped cream and custard.

While they are no longer with us, the Christmas tradition of making Christmas puddings is one I will always associate with them and the beaming smiles on their faces as they tucked into their pudding for Christmas dessert each year.

My new tradition every year now is to make one for my Aunty Carmel and my Godmother Marie, my mam’s sisters who both adore Christmas pudding.

Christmas for me is a time to keep those family traditions alive and making lots of new family memories.