Ingredient

Christmas pudding

A Christmas pudding is a dense, dark, steamed pudding of dried fruit, suet, sugar, spice and alcohol. Two things distinguish it from a cake: it is steamed rather than baked, which is why it is moist and dark rather than dry and crumbly, and it is made months in advance, which is not tradition for its own sake.

Why steaming, and why so far ahead

Steaming cooks at the temperature of boiling water and in a saturated atmosphere. Nothing dries out, nothing browns, and the pudding cooks very slowly and evenly all the way through. That is what gives it its dense, moist, almost sticky texture. Baked, the same mixture would form a crust and dry at the edges long before the middle was cooked.

The long steam — often six to eight hours — also does something else. Sugars and proteins in the fruit and sugar darken slowly over that time, which is where the deep brown colour comes from. A pudding steamed for two hours is noticeably paler and less complex.

Making it months ahead is genuine technique rather than sentiment. Over storage the alcohol and the fruit sugars distribute through the crumb, the flavours meld, the harsh edges of spice and spirit soften, and the pudding darkens further. It also keeps for a long time, because sugar, fat and alcohol are all preservatives — which is why the tradition of making it on Stir-up Sunday, five weeks before Christmas, works at all.

Feeding it — spooning a little brandy or rum over it every few weeks — keeps it moist and deepens the flavour further.

The method

1. Soak the dried fruit — raisins, sultanas, currants, mixed peel, prunes, cherries — in brandy, rum, stout or a mixture, overnight or longer.
2. Mix the dry ingredients: flour, breadcrumbs, sugar, spices, suet or grated butter, ground almonds.
3. Add the soaked fruit and its liquid, grated apple or carrot, citrus zest, treacle, and beaten eggs. Traditionally everyone in the house stirs it and makes a wish.
4. Pack it into a greased pudding basin, pressing down to remove air pockets, and leave a little headspace.
5. Cover with a pleated layer of baking parchment and then foil — the pleat is essential, giving the pudding room to rise — and tie it down with string, making a handle across the top.
6. Steam for six to eight hours, in a covered pan with the basin standing on a trivet or a folded cloth, in water coming halfway up the basin. Top the water up as it evaporates. Letting it boil dry is the one way to ruin it entirely.
7. Cool completely, replace the covering with fresh parchment and foil, and store somewhere cool and dark.
8. Feed it with a spoonful of brandy every few weeks if you like.
9. On the day, steam it again for one to two hours to heat it through.
10. Flame it with warmed brandy at the table if you want the theatre, and serve with brandy butter, cream or custard.

The details

Suet

Traditional, and it gives the characteristic texture — it melts at a higher temperature than butter, leaving small pockets that keep the pudding light for something so dense. Vegetarian suet works well.

Breadcrumbs

Usually alongside flour. They lighten it and stop it being solid.

Alcohol

Brandy, rum, stout, sherry or a mixture. It flavours, moistens and preserves. Alcohol-free versions use strong tea or orange juice and do not keep as long.

Stir-up Sunday

The last Sunday before Advent, traditionally when the pudding is made. It comes from a prayer in the Book of Common Prayer beginning "Stir up, we beseech thee" — the pun is old.

The coin

A silver sixpence stirred in for luck. If you do it, use a coin that is safe for the purpose and tell everyone at the table.

Plum pudding

The older name. "Plum" meant dried fruit generally rather than plums specifically.

What goes wrong

• Dry. Not enough fat or liquid, or over-steamed with the water boiling too hard. It should be a steady simmer.
• Pale and bland. Not steamed long enough. The long slow cook is where the colour and depth come from.
• Water got in. The covering was not tied down properly. Pleat the parchment, foil over it, tie firmly.
• Pan boiled dry. The one catastrophic failure. Check it every hour and top up with boiling water.
• Cracked or collapsed. No pleat in the covering, so it had nowhere to rise.
• Mouldy in storage. It was not cooled completely before being wrapped, or was stored somewhere damp. Cool it fully and store it cool and dry.

Common questions