Posted by Loulou on Dec 13, 2016 | 12 comments

Guess what?  It’s that time again.  PLUM PUDDING TIME.  Papa’s favourite, and because none of the Italian family really wants plum pudding, mama has made them as a surprise for papa.  Eight, to be exact.  Yesterday.  And some for gifts, of course.  No human anthro can eat eight plum puddings without keeling over! Well…maybe one anthro.

This is how you would look if YOU ate them.

Below is what the little pudding looks like after it and five others were steamed in the oven.  Mama did three on a rack in a very large pot on top of the stove, too.  The pot is filled with about 3 inches of water under the rack, the puddings placed on the rack and the pan, covered.

Before

After the steam bath

You serve it with Hard Sauce, see below.

The plum pudding is heated quickly in the oven, then set aflame with brandy and the hard sauce is served on the plate with the hot pudding.  It is not really a pudding of course, but the English call all desserts ‘puddings’ and thence the name.  Mama’s actually have plums in them, but some do not, especially the commercial kind, but mama freezes fresh plums in summer and uses them puréed in the mix.  You do not have to do this, okay?

I got a tiny taste, but that was before mama poured Cognac all over the fruit mix, because I don’t like that stuff at all.  Still, the duck fat was really nice, haha.

Here’s the recipe, just in case you’re feeling a little Charles Dickens-y.  You just mix it all up in a big bowl, pack it into large or small buttered cereal bowls, depending on how big you want your pudding, cover tightly with foil and place in hot water in a large oven pan.  Set oven to around 250F/165C or just until the water in the pan simmers and cook for 1 1/2 hours unless you’re making big puddings.  Then it will take around 2 hours.

SUZANNE’S PLUM PUDDING

1 ½ cups dried apricots, chopped semi fine

1 cup dates or figs, chopped semi fine

1 cup dried prunes, chopped semi fine

1 cups golden raisins

1 cup black raisins

1 large cooking apple, peeled and chopped fine

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

Zest and juices of 1 orange and 1 lemon (or 1 tangerine)

1 teaspoon cardamom

1 teaspoon mace

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon ginger

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon clove

1 cup plum purée (optional)

2 cups bread crumbs

1 ½ cups Cognac

1 cup toasted almonds, pecans, or hazelnuts, chopped coarse

½ pound beef suet, chopped fine or 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

1 ½ cups sifted flour

3 eggs, beaten

Tiny pinch of cayenne

Cognac or brandy to spoon over baked puddings

Mix everything except the flour and eggs in a very large bowl, and moisten with Cognac. Let sit overnight if you have the time, but you don’t have to; you can make the puddings right away. Butter pudding molds or little glass heatproof cereal or dessert bowls for individual puddings of 8 ounces. Or use larger glass bowls which will fit inside another bowl of simmering water.

Add the flour and mix well and then the beaten eggs to the fruit mixture, stirring well. Have a large shallow pot of boiling water ready and a rack, on which you will set your puddings. Or, alternatively, steam the molds in the oven at 165F in a pan of simmering water that comes only halfway up the molds. You may have to replenish this simmering water during the hour and a half needed to steam the puddings, but usually not.

Pack the molds well, leaving about 1/2″ a the top. Cover each tightly with foil and place the dishes in boiling water which comes about halfway up the bowl.  Lower heat, cover the pot (do not cover the baking pan if you are using the oven) and simmer the puddings for 1 ½ hours.  Remove from water and let cool.  Remove foil and loosen puddings with a sharp knife around the inside of the bowl.  Invert puddings and pour 2 teaspoons  Cognac or rum over each one. Wrap in plastic wrap, then in foil to ripen. Puddings will stay fresh in the refrigerator for 1 year.  To serve, heat oven to 350.  Wrap pudding in foil and place in oven for 15 minutes. Puddings will keep for up to one year in the refrigerator.

Serve with hard sauce: Mix 2 tablespoons softened butter with 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons Cognac or rum until the consistency of soft icing. Serve over hot pudding.

To flame pudding: Place 1 cup rum or Cognac in large ladle. Hold over open flame to heat the spoon. Liquor will ignite. Pour over hot pudding.

The photo is not mama’s but it looks exactly like hers when she lights it. I think hers has more fruit.