Easy Christmas pudding recipe

Keep it simple with these tips and tricks to make a moist easy Christmas pudding recipe in one hour then steam in a slow cooker. The best Christmas recipes are ones like this that have been handed down through generations and finessed over many years.  It’s the little tips, tricks and adjustments along the way that guarantees success and a truly Australian Christmas pudding.

My thanks to dear friend MV who has shared her family’s easy Christmas Pudding recipe here and for all the puddings she has made me over the years.

Cook your Christmas Pudding in a slow heat cooker. Photo: Kerry Heaney

This easy Christmas pudding recipe is a family tradition

MV’s easy Christmas pudding recipe is a family tradition that started in Melbourne with her grandmother who used to hang the calico puddings to age for Christmas.

Her mother started to make the puds for her friends as a Christmas gift but found the calico would get mouldy as it hung in Brisbane’s tropical weather.  Instead, she started making them in bowls which could be refrigerated afterwards.

As the eldest daughter, when her mother decided to retire from pudding making, MV took over the task and has been making them for 10 years.  She still bakes them for her mother’s friends but there is only one still left on the list.

Now is it MV’s friends and family that she bakes for and I am one of the lucky ones on the list. Every year our family sits down to a delicious Christmas pudding and enjoys the rich flavours.  In return, I make Johnnie’s Favourite Rum Balls, which are always eagerly received.

Her puddings have travelled far and wide around Australia.  She has posted on to Scotland and one even went in her luggage to the United Kingdom last year.

 You can make this easy Christmas pudding recipe in just one hour! Photo: Kerry Heaney

Family Christmas pudding fun

Finding a coin in the pudding is a fun Christmas tradition that means good luck to the finder.  

When MV’s pudding is served to her family, threepences are strategically placed in the bottom of the bowl.  When the children find the coins, her father would trade them back for a shiny $1 coin.  The oldest coin, which was inevitably found the bowl of the youngest child, got $2!

If you don’t have any threepences or sixpences, there’s an easy solution.  The Royal Australian Mint has a Christmas Pudding Coin Pack.  Do remember to boil the coins before inserting them in any food.

When there are children under three years in the family, putting coins in the pudding needs to be carefully monitored so it’s not a choking hazard.  It is best to place the coins in a warmed slice after cooking.

 Use a cake liner for your Christmas pudding. Photo: Kerry Heaney

Top tips for an easy Christmas pudding in a slow cooker

• Where possible, buy your ingredients in the same sizes as the recipe requires. For example – 500gm packets of butter and brown sugar.  This is one less thing to measure.
• Home brand ingredients are just fine.
• Use pudding bowls with a lip so you can tie the covering securely.
• If you don’t like mixed peel (like MV) just leave it out and don’t worry about a substitute.
• MV has the dried fruit soaking in a jar with Bundaberg OP Rum on the bench overnight or for much longer as it improves the flavour. She turns it regularly to disperse the alcohol.
• Use a cake liner at the bottom of the bowl to ensure the pudding is easy to remove. You can buy cake liners or just use a circle of baking paper.
• Use extra-wide alfoil and double it over to cover the pudding bowls for a good seal.

Transfer the mix into a large bowl before adding the fruits and dry mix ingredients. Photo: Kerry Heaney

 Add the fruit and mix well. Photo: Kerry Heaney

MV’S Easy Christmas Pudding Recipe

Makes two puddings in 21 cm (8 inch) pudding bowls.  You will also need a slow cooker big enough to fit a single bowl.

The recipe takes about 1 hour to make with 6 hours of cooking time.

Ingredients

• 500g raisins
• 500 g currants
• 500 g sultanas
• 120 g mixed peel
• 500g butter
• 500 g brown sugar
• 250 g plain flour
• 250 soft bread crumbs made from day-old bread
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 120gm slivered almonds
• 2 oranges
• 2 lemons
• 8 eggs – at room temperature and cracked separately
• 6 tablespoons OP Rum or Brandy

Method

1. Soak dried fruit in rum and leave overnight.
2. Cream butter and sugar in the large bowl of a Kitchen Aid or similar mixer. Add grated rind of the oranges and lemons.
3. Add beaten eggs.
4. Combine the flour, bicarb and spices and then sift. Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a stiff spatula to combine the ingredients. Stir in fruit and almonds alternatively with sifted dry ingredients and breadcrumbs. Ensure you completely mix the fruit before each addition of flour, so the fruit does not get coated with flour.
5. Grease two pudding bowls and divide mixture equally between the bowls. Cover with foil and tie with string under the lip of the bowl. Wrap the string around at least twice, then trim away the excess foil.
6. Put into a slow heat cooker or saucepan with a plate underneath. Put water in to just below the alfoil.
7. Cook for six hours topping up the saucepan when needed. No topping up if you use a slow cooker.
8. Wrap your cooled pudding in Gladwrap and put it the fridge. It will keep for up to a year and there is no need to freeze.

Cover the pudding bowl with wrap and seal with string. Photo: Kerry Heaney

Serving the pudding

• The room temperature pudding can be reheated in a pot on the stove. Put a saucer underneath and water around the side, then simmer for one hour.
• To reheat in the slow cooker, put it on in the morning for lunch on the reheat setting.
• Serve with vanilla ice cream, custard and cream. You can also serve it with Creme Anglaise.
• You’ve got leftovers? Slice into portions and freeze for later or serve it sliced and fried in butter.
• If you have kept the pudding for 12 months, before reheating put a skewer into the pudding and add two tablespoons of rum to the holes.  Reseal with fresh Alfoil before reheating.

More Christmas treats

Making delicious treats is my favourite part of Christmas.  I enjoy creating seasonal delights and sharing them with my friends.  Here are some of my favourites.

Johnnie’s Favourite Rum Balls

Easy Chocolate Cherry Trifle

How to make a Gingerbread House

Foolproof tips for the perfect roast turkey