A we're home for Christmas this year I thought I'd try and do something a little more traditional than our usual bbq (especially as my husband may not be overly impressed with having to cook outside in the snow )

I need a good plum (christmas) pudding recipe. I've been advised that I need to make it soon in order to 'dose' it for the appropriate amount of time. Oh and a mince pie recipe too if you have one

Does anyone have a good recipe they can recommend?

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/

Try this website. It's super. I get the magazine every month and am a huge fan.

Here's a link to Delia's - which is certainly the tastiest recipe christmas pud I've made:
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/c...s-pudding.html

But - and this is a big but - you will need several ingredients which are hard to get here - the key one being suet - I've only ever been able to get this via the expat shop online (or get it shipped by relatives). And stout. There's another thread just recently about that so have a look at that too. Soft dark brown sugar - the proper sticky stuff (also expat shop). And candied peel - you can only get the really rubbish stuff in the coop - I guess you could get some from a "special" shop?? Barley wine is in Delia's recipe too which I think is a no-no (but I think she does say it's optional).

And of course the other small thing is that you need a pudding basin - which you can't get here either (at least I've never seen one!) Obviously if you have one then it's not a problem!

And the next thing is that you have to steam the damn thing for 8 hours. Yep. Eight hours. A whole day - and 8 hours of making sure it doesn't boil dry. Before you store it that is - then you need another billion hours on christmas day to steam the damn thing again.

I have done all this in the past.... and it's a right royal pain in the butt for not much gain I have to say - apart from smugness knowing that I made it (and the rest of the family don't really appreciate my mammoth effort anyway!)

So, in recent years I have bought one - either online or got rellies to bring it over - these days even the super luxurious ones you can bung em in the microwave for 4 minutes and they will be perfectly fine!

Mince pies I don't have a recipe - I would buy ready made pastry and get out a jar of mincemeat and fill em up.... but I imagine that you'll find a recipe on delia's website above too If you want to make mincemeat yourself then again you will need the magic ingredient of suet.

I have assigned myself to accepting Kokosfett instead of Suet. Next best thing.

I have the bestest recipe for Xmas pud, it's an old Good Housekeeping recipe and there's no suet involved (which is good, because I think that's what a lot of people don't like about Xmas pudding) it uses breadcrumbs instead and lots of yummy chunky nuts and Guinness. The tricky ingredient might be black treacle (molasses?) - haven't looked for it, so don't know if you can get it. If you were a bit closer, I'd offer to share the tin I have, you only need a couple of tablespoons, and I'm pretty sure I've adapted the recipe in the past and used molasses sugar instead of some of the brown sugar to give the flavour.

Traditionally the first Sunday in December is Stir Up Sunday, but for this recipe you need to mix it on Saturday, leave it to steep overnight, then stir up and steam on the Sunday (steam for 6 hours, or boil for 4), couple of hours on Xmas Day.

One of your replies (really sorry, already forgotten poster's name) says you can't get pudding basins here - probably not the (earthenware?) ones we would normally use, but I've used a pyrex-type (glass) bowl before now, no problem, and I saw some of those in Migros yesterday.

Yip, you can buy molasses here. You get it in a jar which looks like a jam jar. Ask if you cannot find.

Last year I used the same recipe from Delia Smith, with some changes, and they were delicious, http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/c...s-pudding.html
I made the following changes, all ingredients available in a large Coop:

a bit of baking powder with the Swiss plain flour
cooking butter instead of suet (a big improvement as the pudding was not so dense and stiff as when using the suet)
dark beer from Belgium / France, any old Trappist monk stuff
Cognac instead of rum
raw brown sugar (Sucre brut moulu - from Coop - Rohrzucker gemahlen)
I omitted the candied peel as the kids don't like it and the recipe calls for only 25 grams: but you can get it in Coop.
Other years I have used chopped prunes instead of raisins (They give a very dark colour)

Last year I used a pressure cooker, cooking time was now 33%, only 2 hours 40 mins! It worked very well.

This year I decided to make several smaller ones, and in Ikea kitchen ware department I found some (one pint) white earthenware pots (actually 450 ml) which were about Fr 6,-- each (Shape was something like a squat flower vase) They lack the rim on a basin, but I tied the string over the top and under the "vase".

On Sunday I steamed them for 2 hours each in a pressure cooker. Removed the paper and foil tops. Added large spoon of cognac and made some fresh tops, tied them up again and put them away to mature in a cardboard box on the balcony.

The pressure cooker would only just take 2 vases each time, by standing one vase on a cup. I made 6 puddings, so I was a busy boy! I sampled a bit, and they have the texture of a pannetone crust with a lovely flavour.

On Christmas day I will just gently microwave them to warm them up, and serve with custard and brandy butter.

Thanks so much!

I'm celiac so I'm going to see if I can adapt the recipe using GF flour, bread crumbs and beer. Quite looking forward to the challenge

I make my own pastry so I'll whip up a batch to make some mince pies. I may have a friend post me a pack of ingredients I cant get here (mince mix etc).

Just typed up my recipe (bit rotten saying it's the best, then not sharing), but not sure now if there are copyright issues with posting it? Anyone?

Wow, that's good to know - I'm almost tempted to try it again now you said that But I don't have a pressure cooker and I don't think I could go for the long cooking time again. Hmmm.

On the pudding basin front... how does pyrex stand up to the long steam? I've not tried it obviously (I have a UK imported pudding basin from when I came) - but would it not be too thin - my croc one has very thick sides iykwim.

I did wonder actually about trying to do individual ones in ramekins? Anyone done that? Do they keep as well?

I am sure the Pyrex would be safe. The temperature of pressurised steam is quite low compared to the normal for Pyrex glass.

Ramekins would be very fidly, thats why I chose the Ikea pots which would each feed 4 ladies or 2 hungry men.

Thank you all. Great recipes!

Thread resurrection

You can microwave a pud. The last minute Christmas pudding recipe on BBC good foods works really well and tastes great