No, Christmas pudding is not an English fruitcake, but it does take courage (2024)

Editor's note: This story was originally published Dec. 12, 2016. We're bringing it back so that you'll have additional ideas for holiday cooking.

There are some scents that have the power to inspireyou to sing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" — like the scent of a fresh-cut Douglas fir, a slab of chocolate dusted in fresh candy canes, and thesmell of eggnog blanketing the air.

But for a slim few, Christmas Pudding is quintessentially Christmas because of its earthy warmth and unmistakable aroma. I’m on a mission to bring this long-forgotten holiday treasure out of the history books and place it front and center on your Christmas table.

This last statement might have you scratching your head, curious about the difference, ifat all, between Christmas Pudding and fruitcake. I grew up in a house void of both, butnot for lack of interest.

Quite the contrary: My mother longingly talked about the aromaof fruitcake from her childhood, where the house would fill with the scent of it beingbaked in old coffee cans, then wrapped in rum-soaked cheese cloth. To hear her tellthe story, I’m reminded of the first time I heard my husband speak about his Nan making Christmas Pudding in a drafty terraced house in East London. The outside chillwas kept at bay by a pluming cloud of steam that covered the cooktop and encouragedeveryone to sit nearby and sip their tea for the marathon steaming session thatinevitably left them all smelling of spice for days on end.

You’re forgiven if you think Christmas Pudding is the round English version of anAmerican fruitcake.

While it has similarities, they are altogether different. Both improvewith age and include dried fruits, chopped nuts, hearty spices, and steep in a cold darkspot for weeks, but that is where the similarities end. Apart from being a loaf, fruitcake is made with a butter batter that is often dense, solid, and has that peculiartexture of being dry like pound cake yet moist and crumbly when baked to perfection. Bycomparison, it is a swift baking process that requires very little preparation.

AChristmas Pudding, on the other hand, is a suet-based cake that is steamed for hours,giving it a rich, moistand crumbly texture that makes it more fitting for a bowl than aplate. Well beyond using a simple loaf tin, making a Christmas Pudding requirespudding basins wrapped in parchment and foil, tied with twine, and then suspended inthe right amount of boiling water that needs to be nurtured and kept level for hours. To make a Christmas Pudding, you need time, loveand courage to go big andbold.

If I had to compare it, it is the freshly made pastry on a summer tart, the delicate toasted meringue atop a spring lemon pie, and the handmade jam that swirls through your autumn marble Bundt cake.

My first taste of Christmas Pudding came the year I married Alex, my second year inLondon. The year before, I had passed by the store offerings, brightly wrapped ingarishly shiny paper and later being passed out at office holiday parties like sugarcookies, only to be re-gifted at the next party, unwrapped and unloved.

Unbeknownst tome, the real love was saved for the ones their grandmothers were making. So it goeswithout saying that when the topic of Christmas Pudding came up, I was less thanamused by the prospect of sitting in a tiny cold flat with hot cups of tea watching thewater boil for eighthours — until that first plume of aromatic cloud melted my heart andconverted me.

There was no steeping the pudding that year; we devoured ourChristmas Pudding fresh from the pot, tossed out our tea, replacing it with brandy, andwere as festive as two newlyweds could be over a round confection still steaming fromthe bath, all while it was fighting us to let it rest. We’ve had 16 Christmas Puddingssince, each one better than the last.

There are many recipes for Christmas Pudding, all with slight variations depending onthe family.

But four rules weave true among all the recipes: generous doses ofaromatic hearty spices, heaving cups of dried fruit, a festive dose of booze, and mostimportant, never compromise on the suet.

Traditionally, the Sunday before Advent is a day dedicated to the holiday kitchen, and more specifically, Christmas Pudding. This is not a day for multitasking, it is day when you take your kitchen by two hands and hold it close, just as you do when you remove your steaming hot and surprisingly dense pudding, which has been made all the more heavy by the steaming process that brings itall together.

Being tied to the kitchen sparks the holiday season and fills the house with scents ofmixed spices, nutmeg, cinnamonand candied peel, making it unlike any other festivetreat. The lingering aromas of citrus and spice only intensify as the pudding steeps, andthen reaches its peak when the pudding is steamed. For those who can muster thestrength to store these puddings until Christmas, there are great rewards, but for some, it's an impossible task to resist digging into that first pudding, still steaming from itswater bath.

Christmas Pudding

Ingredients

4 cups dried fruit (sultanas, raisins, currants, apricots)

1/2 cup candied orange peel

1/2 cup candied lemon peel

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1 2/3 cup all-purpose white flour

4 cups basic bread crumbs

1 3/4 cup suet

2 tablespoons pumpkin spice

Pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 1/2 cup light muscovado sugar

Juice and grated peel of one lemon

6 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups orange marmalade

1 cup dark beer, divided

4 tablespoon of brandy, or dark rum plus a jigger for the cream

Butter for greasing

1 cup of heavy whipping cream

Directions

Mix all the dry ingredients together (through sugar) using a wide whisk so that they gently fold together. Add the lemon peel and juice, stir. Then add the eggs and marmalade, whisking them together until a batter forms. Add half of the beer and stir until fully blended. Cover the mixing bowl with a cotton tea towel and allow it to rest at room temperature for 24 hours.

The following day, add the remaining beer and the brandy or rum and beat well to ensure that remaining booze is soaked into the batter. You will have a very thick batter that does not pour, but rather sits heavily in the bowl.

Grease your pudding bowl well and then scoop the batter into the bowl, leveling thetop so that it is nice and flat. Cover the Christmas Pudding with a sheet of parchment paper and tie tightly with a length of kitchen twine. Then cover with foil and tie again to secure the foil to the pudding bowl.

Put the bowl into a heavy deep stock pot filled with boiling water and slowly set it down into the water so that the water comes just below the tied string, not fully covering the pudding bowl. Steam with the lid on the pot for 3 hours, replacing the water as needed to ensure proper steaming.

Once the Christmas Pudding is steamed, remove from the pot and allow it to rest for 20 minutes before removing the foil and parchment paper. Slowly turn upside down.

Once cool, whip up the cream and remaining brandy or rum, slather on top and serve immediately. Alternatively, allow the pudding the to rest, then seal in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

Note: In-house Christmas Pudding is often served with brandy butter, but the childrenlove it with whipped cream. Both are delicious, but if I had to choose one, the cream wins every time.

Makes 8 servings.

PER SERVING: Calories 1,431, Fat 48 g (24 g sat), Cholesterol 195 mg, Sodium 562 mg, Fiber 8 g, Carbohydrates 186 g, Protein 22 g