Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Easy Chocolate Christmas Pudding


The mantle has finally passed and I am now the maker of the Christmas pudding in our family.  My mother made the pudding for years using her mother's recipe and despite the desire to nostalgically carry on with granny's recipe, I decided to change it up a bit, by adding chocolate and taking out a few ingredients, such as suet.

The hand over was surprisingly easy, so I encourage you to have a go at making a Chocolate Christmas Pudding, if you are in any way keen to do so.  The thought of steaming a pudding for 4 hours and making sure the water remains 3/4 of the way up the side of the pudding bowl, can be a daunting prospect, but if you can commit to 4 hours of hanging around the house to watch the pudding, you will be rewarded with a very joyous outcome.

This recipe delivers a moist and beautifully scrumptious pudding. 
If you are not a fan of Christmas Pudding, this one may change your view.


Apart from the pudding, the Christmas culinary fare continued, with the construction of the Gingerbread House over the weekend.  This year we diverted from the Aldi model and upscaled the architecture, with a four walled creation.

I was very lazy and decided to glue the house together with green store bought icing, that I already had in the  pantry.  Half way through the process, I decided that was a bad idea and put together some white icing to try and rectify the situation.  By the end of the process I needed a stiff drink and could not be bothered to dust it with icing sugar.  Looking at the photo, hindsight is a wonderful thing and I should have, but my little girl was happy enough, so that meant I was too.


Chocolate Christmas Pudding

500g of Christmas Pudding mixed fruit
1 cup brandy
2 cups panko breadcrumbs
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup of slivered almonds
200g dark cooking chocolate 
250g butter
1 teaspoon pure maple syrup
2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
75 g brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs

In a large mixing bowl, combine the mixed fruit and brandy and leave to soak overnight.
Stir mixture occasionally.
The next day, add breadcrumbs, nutmeg, mixed spice, almonds and salt.
Stir to combine.
In a saucepan melt the butter, chocolate and maple syrup. Add to the fruit mixture
Add flour, sugar and baking powder to the fruit mixture and stir to combine.
Beat eggs and vanilla and add to mixture.
Grease a pudding steamer with butter.
Line the bottom circle (the small one when inverted) of the pudding steamer with baking paper.
Pour pudding mixture into the steamer.
Cut 4 circular pieces of baking paper to cover the base of the pudding steamer and place on top of the pudding mixture.
Place pudding steamer lid on securely.
Place a large pot of water on the stove, large enough to easily take your pudding steamer. 
Place a rack or an up turned tea saucer plate on the bottom of the pot.
Sit pudding on the rack or plate and bring to a rapid simmer.
Turn down to a gentle simmer.
Cook for 4 hours, ensuring the water level is maintained to 3/4 up the side of the steamer.
After cooking, turn the steamer upside down on a plate and leave to cool for 1 hour before turning out.
Serve reheated with custard and clotted cream.
Can be made up to 2 months before serving.



This was really yummy and I think even the non pudding eaters might find this delicious.


For many more simple Christmas recipes and ideas visit my Christmas page here.

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10 comments :

  1. I love the idea of a chocolate christmas pudding. Not everyone likes the traditional one. This is a great spin on the idea. The gingerbread house looks awesome too. #teamIBOT

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  2. That looks really delicious but it also looks a bit too hard for me this year! In the meantime I will buy a Christmas pudding instead but I doubt I'll find any with chocolate damnit!

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  3. Your pudding looks amazing, and I'm pretty impressed with that gingerbread house as well. :)

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  4. I'm not a fan of Christmas pudding but you had me at chocolate!

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  5. Yummo! Looks great. I honestly am not a lover of Christmas pudding, but I do love chocolate. So this one may change my mind. Will have to forward this recipe to my Nan!!

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  6. Looks yummy. I'm ver much a traditionilst when it comes to Christmas, So I don't tinker with my grandma's recipe.

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  7. Thank you for this!
    My daughter missed out on chocolate pudding at kindy the other day, so I promised I would make one. Now I have a great recipe!

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  8. I've never made pudding, because I always but them as they seem to daunting to make. You have me at chocolate pudding though. Anything chocolate and I'm in!

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  9. This is very timely - I mentioned our special Christmas pudding (my great-grandmother's recipe) to my 5yo yesterday and her perked up, "Chocolate pudding?" "No, plum pudding - with fruit in it," I explained. His poor little face crumpled! Maybe this would be more of interest...

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