Christmas Pudding

My Nana turned 97 this year and she has been making our Christmas Pudding for a very, very long time. It is a dessert I have always been too afraid to make but this year we have created our new Gluten Free Christmas Pudding recipe. We have been more creative than the traditional selection of fruit and we have used a pudding bowl rather than calico but I say the proof is in the pudding.

Gluten Free · Nut Free · Refined Sugar Free

Makes 1 x 900g pudding

Ingredients

75g Anything But Ordinary Plain Flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ heaped teaspoon cinnamon

¼ heaped teaspoon nutmeg

550g fruit mince (see recipe below)

1 tablespoon rum

65g butter, melted

65g rapadura sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

65g GF breadcrumbs (see note)

Method

Grease a 1.2 litre (minimum) pudding bowl and place a circle of baking paper on the base.

Sieve the Anything But Ordinary Plain Flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Stir the rum, butter and sugar into the fruit mince, then stir in the egg followed by the breadcrumbs. Lastly add the flour and stir well. Tip into prepared pudding bowl and smooth the top with a spatula. Cut a piece of grease proof paper larger than the bowl and pleat (approx 2-3cm) in the middle. If the pudding bowl has a fitted lid put the paper on before the lid. If no lid, put the paper on first and do the same with a piece of foil then secure both with two strong elastic bands under the rim of the bowl.

Fill a large pot that has a fitted lid with boiling water. Place a heat resistant rack in the bottom of the pot and stand the pudding bowl on this. The bowl must not be touching the base of the pot. The water should be boiling rapidly and come three quarters of the way up the side of the bowl. The heat can be reduced as long as the water continues to boil. Place the lid on the pot and boil the pudding for 5 hours, topping up the water every hour or as necessary. Carefully remove cooked pudding from the water. Immediately remove lid or foil and paper, making sure no water gets into the pudding. Cover with a light cloth and let cool completely for a few hours.

Tip out of bowl and wrap in cling film and foil and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 months.

To serve hot, either warm individual serves by microwave or foil wrapped in the oven, or reheat the whole pudding (if using all at once) by letting it sit for a few hours at room temperature on the day needed then placing back in the pudding bowl, covered and boiled again for an hour.

Fruit Mince Recipe

Note

Cut the crusts from slices of any GF bread (it can be our delicious Raisin Toast Loaf) and reduce to crumbs in a food processor.