Christmas pudding time again

It's that time of year again: time to make the Christmas pudding: such a lovely rythm to the year; I'm pretty sure I made it at a similar time last year? This year though I'm making 3/4 of the mixture for 3 of us and 1/4 Gluten free for Miss Y: ie a 900ml pudding AND a 300ml pudding.

Here's the fruit a -soaking: now I know it doesn't look like much but OOOH THE SMELL!!! DIVINE. Just as if Christmas is already here. The kids have already made a few lists and also decided what they're giving us apparently. The 6 Bells in town has a decorated X-mas tree in the entrance. Bit early I think. Then again X-mas cards and toys etc went on sale in September in some supermarkets. Try to catch the sales while people think they still have jobs? Comprehensive Spending Review will likely make millions redundant.

This year it was this stout that JJ kindly bought while I was walking the dogs at Moreton. Not sure it'd be gluten free but what the H. Only for soaking the fruit?

Talking of fruit, did you know Dachshunds like sloes? I managed to pick only these measley few,but Pips andLucy managed to eat lots of large squashy ripe ones they found on the path.

Oh I hope I can go back with a ladder as I do so love Sloe gin and Christmas. Mum used to make it every year and give me a bottle but now I'll have to make it and take her some. JJ has the recipe on his i-phone. ( glad to find it CAN be useful, but mostly it's a nuisance)

Frost and blue skies again today and such glorious berries on the trees; we'll have another hard winter?! Remember last year, all the berries, JJ's prediction and then ALL THAT SNOW in January?

My aubretia is still flourishing in happy harmonious blues even if all my astors have died in the frost.

Red Kites were screeching and circling the house, causing much barking from the dogs.

Lucy.

And Pippa, wonderful eyebrows aren't they?

Did you see the article in Country Life recently? Why dachshunds are TOP dogs! Bought it in Petersfield in September as that COULD be Pips and Lucy on the cover- before /after grooming respectively.

This was the other shot of them. At a school. The article said what characters they were: well:

Lucy looking oh so sorry for herself. I have only these 2 blankets on such a cold hard floor....

That's because minutes earlier SHE had pulled her basket to the other side of the kitchen and pulled the cushion- well chewed of course- and the blanket OUT of the basket. She does like re-arranging things.

Favourite place: SOFA! Favourite activity: CHEWING something.


PS Also note new sweater dress in first piccie? Am so very pleased with this. Long and warm and very cost effective as it was from my beloved TKMAXX. I do love browsing and hunting for designer bits and bargains there.

Christmas Pudding next steps

Today was the day for steaming these puddings as above. As I got rather busy on Sunday with all the gown making I forgot to buy the required orange and ended up raiding an ''open late'' shop for a single orange at 8pm!!! Hence by the time the juice and zest were added I let it all soak for another night.

Then after a trip to the dentist with Miss E, I got all the remaining ingredients ready and mixed them well, you need a really LARGE bowl for this, not the medium one used to soak the fruit.

Also once I remembered the orange I also acquired the (dreaded) white bread and took out 6 slices to dry out a bit before processing. Miss Y is over the moon to be allowed a slice of white bread today as this is a banned substance in our house.....

They dried out overnight.

From left clockwise: brown sugar,breadcrumbs,suet with flour,2 beated eggs in a mug and an apple about to be peeled and grated.

In a larger bowl, well mixed it looks like this! And then transferred to the 2 pudding basins:

The small one's kept for any special event, New Year's Eve, a visit during Christmas or for Boxing Day...The big one is IT for Christmas Day.

I cut 2 squares of baking parchment and 1 square of foil per basin, place on top of each other: 30 cm square for the small one and 38cm by 45 cm for the bigger one. Fold in half and fold back on itself to create a 2-3 cm deep pleat in the centre. This is to allow it to expand during steaming.

Tuck layers over basin with the foil on the outside. Ohhh I forgot, you grease the basins with butter before putting the mixture in. Ooopsie. The pic above is the small basin.

Cut a length of string: aboit 1.8m and fold in half, run the double strands around the basin just below the rim and thread the ends through the loop at the centre: can you see?

Now comes the tricky bit: while keeping the string as taut and tight as possible, thread some over the top along the centre and under the string collar at the opposite side, then pull it as tight as you can and knot it in place. This forms the handle to remove the basin after steaming.

I do a series of half-knots along the handle with the spare string. Very macrame style, see above.

Trim foil and paper to about 3-4 cm below string. Put into pan with a well fitting lid and onto a heat-proof saucer or trivet.( these are inside the pan for the pudding basin to sit on!)

I have broken many ''old'' saucers over the years and now use a metal cookie cutter to keep the basin off the base of the pan. Amusingly I used an angel cookie cutter this year...To keep watch over the pudding and it's secret surprise....

Fill pan halfway up basin with boiling water, fit lid and steam for 4-5 hours for the large one and 2-3 hours for the smaller one. Keep checking the water level but a strong simmering setting should suffice. Leave to cool and then cut way the foil and paper and replace with an identical fresh set.

Leave in a cool dry place for - recipe says 2 months- up to 6 months is what I have done in the past and all was well.

To reheat on the day:

Steam for 2 hours or remove the foil and paper and reheat in microwave for 3-5 minutes depending on size and power of microwave.

To serve: run a flat bladed knife around edge and turn it out onto a decorative plate.

Pour over some gently heated brandy and carefully light this with a taper if so desired; carry into a darkened room for maximum effect.

Serve with brandy cream or brandy butter or ( for the children) vanilla ice cream.......( home-made?!)

MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm DELICIOUSLY FRUITY!!!!

( fresh cream or home made vanilla custard can also be used)

This is how much the pudding bows up inside the pan, I have sealed the pouring lip of the pan with some extra foil to improve the retention of the generated steam.

Christmas Pudding recipe : delicious and very easy

Here I am AGAIN today, blogging away and it's because I was thinking about traditions and families and handing recipes down etc etc. Then I thought it will be OK if I blog it because it will be out there in the ether.... And then: how long for? Will there be a day when blogland is full? When bits get deleted? Will we be charged for what's out there?
Will my children read this when they are in University, have their own homes, when they/if they become parents, will grandchildren read this? How will we be living in 40 years time?
I could go on.......
We had a tradition in Holland, where I grew up that mum would be given a Christmas pudding from Fortnum and Mason's every Christmas. We would celebrate St Nicolas on or around the 5th December and Christmas was a quiet affair, mostly about eating, trekking to Rotterdam for the Christmas service at the Anglican Church for Seamen and coming home to open a few presents from English relations of my mother's. Mum would roast a turkey in an oven she had insisted had to be big enough for the Christmas turkey although we did not eat roasts very often at all.

I had never eaten homemade Christmas pudding until 2004. In that year nuts were BIG. They were EVERYWHERE. And I'm allergic to nuts. In a ''call the ambulance she's turning blue'' kind of way. As a family were not that keen on mince pies and we can kind of take or leave Christmas cake, BUT we all love Christmas pudding!!! So what to do? Waitrose came to our aid as they were still distributing free recipe leaflets in those days( they don't anymore- don't ask me why) and here follows the recipe that is now a firmly rooted TRADITION in our household.
It was made: In June 2004, June 2005, August 2006,October 2007 and October 2008.
I stuck it into our Fruit Desserts Cookbook so as to not lose it! And it's beautifully illustrated in steps. We'll do step 1 today together with the ingredients list: OK?
For us it makes 2 puddings:a small one and a large one: diameter of oudding basin: 5'' and 7'' respectively. The recipe says it does one 1.2l pudding.

INGREDIENTS:

75G semi dried cherries ( but I have also used part of a berries and cherries pack or the Asda 5 fruits pack)

150g cranberries( dried)

150g raisins

150g sultanas

finely grated zest and juice of a large orange

0.5 teasp nutmeg( which I leave out- allergy again)

1 teasp cinnamon

1teasp ground mixed spice

200ml STOUT such as Murphy's or Mackeson ans this year I found a local double stout see below.

2 tabsp brandy or rum or madeira. Plus 100ml for serving au flambee for which I always use a bit of Courvoisier.

125 g Atora light vegetable suet- and don't use the full fat one as I did in 2005 as it didn't work!!!

50 g self raising flour

100g fresh white breadcrumbs- make them yourself from slices left to dry for a day and then process into crumbs

1 Bramley apple peeled,cored and grated( medium)

225 g dark brown soft sugar

2 large eggs beaten.

It's the brown ingredients that you put in a large bowl and soak overnight covered by a damp clean tea-towel.

Every year I have a job understanding what is stout! In the Netherlands it's all one thing: BIER!
But here there is ale and bitter, lager and stout: sooo confusing! So every year when wandering around Waitrose reading beer labels I enlist the help of someone- usually male. NOT this year as for once a bottle actually SAID stout on it! AND it was local!!! Right up the road in our County.

Where progress is measured in pints it says on the cap....

I always use RUM in the pudding as we have it to hand- I'm a bit partial to rum, especially dark rum or Jamaican rum.And how cool is it to have a CROCODILE on your logo?!!!It's on the trade mark. This was taken 11 October 2007, so I'm a bit late this year...It started getting later when I was working, I was a fulltime mum in 2004 and 2005.

Ooops I have a confession to make: look at the piccie above and then below.

We can play ''spot the difference''?!!This year's is more red, probably because I did use some 50 g of Asda's 5 fruits pack and the cherries and berries has even more cranberries in it, whereas the dried cherries pack in 2007 was just cherries and they look large and a purple/brown.

AND oops, yes AND I forgot to buy extra oranges!!! So no orange until tomorrow for the zest and the juice. My family have eaten this week's oranges ....

This went into the fridge at 8 pm covered to avoid any drying out.( or any alcohol escaping!)

Still the scent is WONDERFUL!!! The whole kitchen and fridge smell of CHRISTMAS!!!!

That fruity spicy cinnamoney comforting scent....

AND I made the first gown today! They can be decorated so we added a few smiley faces...

And Lucy couldn't keep away as I laid it for a photograph...3 Bows out of sewn bias binding on the back. Easy Peasy. The girls tie dyed this in one of the holidays and it's never been worn, it's new.

And for the history books what did I do on a grey dull Saturday in October 2009 in the UK?

Will this be turned into a HORRIBLE HISTORIES BOOK one day? Sooo beloved by Miss Y!!

I have walked 2 dogs on a field with the eldest daughter.( Miss E)- 1 hour

Sorted and put away washing. Put the school uniform/white wash on and hung it to dry when it finished.

Found 9 or more tshirts in the attic for making gowns as above.

Blogged the Lucy antics on the stairs in the morning.

Fed family: breakfast, lunch and dinner- all eaten in our kitchen together.( fed dogs too of course!)

Marked KUMON maths for Miss Y.

Chased and cajoled re homework for both and piano and cello playing for each of the daughters.

Played a little piano myself.

Debated ''what to wear ''to Wembley for her first pop concert with Miss E.

Ensured ''dad'' knew where and when to take her before setting off to go the rollerdisco with Miss Y.

2 hours of inline rollerskating which was actually enormous fun as it makes me feel about 8 years old again. I can also pretend it's ice skating which I absolutely LOVE and did a lot as a child .

Praised and hugged Miss Y a lot as she doesn't like excercise much, but she did very well!!

She's now engrossed in the inevitable: X factor TV programme....

E-mailed friends and answered a few too.

Logged the post and updated diary for next rollerdisco dates. Need to invite a few friends and make halloween costumes.

Shopped for the cranberries, which although bought, were EATEN by Miss E before they made it to the pudding!!!Also bought stout. Ate the rest of the packet of berries and cherries: Yummy!

Made the soaking part of the pudding and blogged the recipe.

Read a few of my favourite blogs.

Cleaned Kitchen and sewed a gown.

Chatted and planned progress for our marketing company with JJ.

Agreed where ensuite fittings should go on Monday, plumbers are finally finished. Electrician is to finalise .

JJ has put a new stairgate up!!! Lucy is NOT impressed.

Cuddles with JJ and with dogs.

Researched times for family movie: to go see UP.

Also planned and discussed what we'll do during half term. Agreement between the parties is almost reached....

And now it must be time for:

dishwasher unload/load, crochet with a bit of i-player catch up as TV is monopolised and at 11 pm we'll go pick up Miss E from the railway station.

THAT'S LIFE TODAY!!!