Frances Bissell's Low-fat Christmas Puddingpuddings 230 grams (8 oz; 4 loosely packed Cups) fresh wholemal Breadcrumbs 230 grams (8 oz; 2 cups) EACH of Roughly chopped muscatel (black) raisins Sultanas (yellow raisins) And dried apricots 60 grams (2 oz; 3/4 cup) crumbled Almond macaroons or Amaretti 60 grams (2 oz; 3/4 cup) chopped Almonds 60 grams (2 oz; 1/2 cup) ground or Flaked almonds 1 Grated appple 1 tablespoon Grated orange zest 1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon Ground mace 1/2 teaspoon Ground cardamom (I had none So used cumin; which worked As well!) 1/2 teaspoon Ground cloves (I used whole And put them in the food Processor With the bread! Again; it Worked) 1/2 teaspoon Ground allspice 2 tablespoons Orange marmalade or candied Orange peel Juice of 1 orange 4 medium Free-range eggs 6 tablespoons Or 1 miniature bottle of Cognac 140 milliliters (5 fl oz; scant 2/3 cup) Fortified muscat wine, port Marsala Or rich oloroso sherry Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Put the marmalade, orange juice, eggs, brandy and wine in another large bowl, or in the blender or food processor, and beat until well blended and frothy. Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients. Mix until moist. Cover, and let sand for a couple of hours at least and, if possible, overnight to let the spice flavours develop. Oil or butter the pudding basin and spoon in the mixture. As it contains no raw flour, it will not expand very much during the cooking, so you can fill the basin to within 1.25 cm (1/2 inch) of the rim. Take a square of greaseproof or waxed paper, oil or butter it (I didn't bother, but did oil the basins. I don't have a 3-pint one, so used 1 2-pint and 1 1-pint one, 2 pints being ample for my family for Christmas dinner) and tie it over the top of the basin with string. Steam in boiling water for 5 hours. Allow pudding to cool completely before wrapping it, still in its basin, in fresh greaseproof paper plus a layer of foil. Store in a cool dark place. On Christmas Day, steam for a further two hours. Bissell/Levy suggest serving this with creme fraiche, rather than the traditional brandy butter (don't ask - not to be discussed on THIS mailing list!!!), and I do think this is one occasion when a LITTLE cream is permissible! Incidentally, the tradition is that every member of the family stirs the pudding mixture while making a wish.... Recipe typed by Annabel smith but taken from Paul Levy's "The Feast of Christmas) Converted to MM by Donna Webster donna@webster.demon.co.uk |
