Cakes & Bakes: Vegetarian Christmas Pudding

Stir-up Sunday happened to fall on my birthday this year, so I prepared my vegetarian Christmas pudding on the following Monday instead.

I’m a bit of a fussy eater, so I often prefer to prepare my own food – like the mincemeat for mince pies and Christmas pudding. That way, I know that it’s made using vegetarian suet and contains no orange or lemon zest/juice, no candied peel and no whisky – none of which I like.

I had various packets of dried fruit and nuts already in my store cupboard so made a mixture containing raisins, sultanas, dates, dried apricots, almonds and pecans. Any dried fruit & nut combo will work – there’s no right way or wrong way. Also, I had a bottle of dark rum gifted to me by my sister last year; but brandy, sherry, Calvados or Armagnac would also be fine alternatives to the more traditional whisky and stout.

The pudding needs to be tightly sealed using a layer of parchment paper and pleated tin foil (to allow for expansion) and secured using string. A nifty little string handle is optional, but very useful for extricating the hot pudding. You can see how it’s done here.

I have a useful vintage aluminium pudding basin that has hinged fasteners and a handle incorporated into its design.

If you don’t have a steamer, put an upturned (heat-proof) saucer in the bottom of a saucepan, sit your pudding on top of it, fill the saucepan with hot water to about halfway up the sides of the basin and cover the saucepan with a lid. As the pan will be simmering away gently on the stove for about 5 hours, lift the lid every so often to check and see if the water level needs topping up.

Once cooked, the pudding should be stored away somewhere cool and dark until the big day. Some people prepare their puddings a year in advance; i.e. the one they prepared on this year’s Stir-up Sunday will be put away until Christmas Day 2020. They swear by the superior flavour that develops from giving the longer resting time.

There are as many preferred accompaniments to Christmas pudding as there are Christmas pudding recipe variations; brandy butter, pouring cream, clotted cream, custard or ice cream. Lots of people comment about having leftover pudding on Boxing Day, fried in butter, with bacon or with cheese (a Northern thing, apparently).

Save my Christmas pudding recipe to Pinterest by clicking here

Vegetarian Christmas pudding

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Course Dessert

Cuisine English

Servings 6 portions

Ingredients

SOAK FOR 1-7 DAYS

75 g/2⅔oz raisins
75 g/2⅔oz sultanas
200 g/7oz dates finely chopped
50 g/1¾oz dried apricots finely chopped
50 g/1¾oz almonds chopped
50 g/1¾oz pecans chopped
150 ml/5¼fl oz dark rum

CREAM TOGETHER

2 eggs
75 g/2⅔oz muscovado sugar
50 g/1¾oz butter
1 lime zest & juice

SIFT TOGETHER

50 g/1¾oz self-raising flour
½ tsp mixed spice
a little fresh grated nutmeg

COMBINE ALL OF THE ABOVE THEN ADD

25 g/¾oz vegetarian suet
100 g/3½oz wholemeal breadcrumbs
small cooking apple peeled & grated

Instructions

Generously grease a 1.5 pint pudding basin with a little butter. Cut out a small disc of parchment paper an lay it on the bottom of the basin
Spoon the mixture into the pudding basin, pressing the contents down firmly with the back of the spoon
Lay a circle of parchment paper over the top of the filled pudding bowl so that there’s a 2cm overhang
Cover the parchment paper with a pleated layer of tin foil, also with a 2cm overhang
Secure the parchment/tin foil overhang with string tied around the circumference of the pudding bowl, under the lip
Attach another piece of string to act as a lifting handle
Simmer the pudding in a steamer (or lidded saucepan with a trivet/upturned saucer and hot water that reaches halfway up the sides of the bowl) for 5 hours topping up the water level when necessary
When cooked, allow to cool completely, remove the parchment & tin foil cover and string and replace with new. Store in a cool dry place, ready for reheating on Christmas day. Reheating will take about 90 minutes, steaming using the same method
Once reheated, invert on to a serving plate and remove the disc of parchment paper. Just before serving, pour over a couple of tablespoons of rum that has been warmed in a little saucepan. Carefully set it alight

Vegetarian Christmas pudding ingredients

Serve with thick cream, rum or brandy butter, custard or vanilla ice cream

Keyword Christmas, dried fruit, pudding, vegetarian

Cakes & Bakes: Yule log

Continuing with the seasonal Cakes & Bakes recipes, this week I made a Christmas Yule log. It’s the perfect sweet course alternative for people that don’t like dried fruit-filled Christmas pudding, Christmas cake or mince pies.

This cake is basically a chocolate Swiss roll with chocolate filling and chocolate icing on the outside. Apparently, a Yule log can trace its history back to the time of the Druids. It was later taken up by Christians: “As the fire grew brighter and burned hotter, and as the log turned into ashes, it symbolized Christ’s final and ultimate triumph over sin.”

I still don’t have a proper Swiss roll tin, so I used a rectangular, loose-bottomed tart tin. So that the sponge didn’t turn out too thin and biscuity, I didn’t allow the batter to spread all the way into the corners.

The trickiest part of the process was rolling up the still warm sponge with a clean, damp tea towel. It helps stop the sponge from cracking when rolling it up after filling. Don’t worry if it does though – it will be getting covered up with buttercream… which can hide a multitude of mistakes!

Serve it sliced with whipped or brandy cream. Save the recipe to Pinterest here.

Yule log

2018-12-18 17:55:21

Serves 6

For the sponge

3 eggs
75g caster sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
50g plain flour

For the filling

50g butter, softened
75g icing sugar
1 tbsp cocoa

For the icing

75g butter, softened
75g icing sugar
75g dark chocolate

Add ingredients to shopping list

If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it

For the sponge

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C, 180°C (fan), 400°F, Gas mark 6
Line a 23x32cm/9x13" Swiss roll tin with parchment
Separate the eggs into two bowls and beat the whites until stiff
Add the sugar to the yolks and beat until thickened
Sieve the cocoa powder over the yolks and beat again
Gently fold the egg whites into the yolks with a metal spoon, using a cutting and turning action
Sieve the flour into the bowl and gently combine by cutting and folding with the spoon
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, spreading it out to the edges
Bake for 10-12 minutes
Slightly dampen a clean tea towel
Slide the hot cake, still on its parchment, onto the tea towel
Roll up the sponge, on the parchment, in the tea towel and leave to cool

For the filling

Put the filling butter into a bowl and beat it until it is light and fluffy
Sieve the icing sugar and cocoa powder into the bowl and beat until combined and soft
Gently unroll the cold sponge and loosen it from the parchment paper
Spread the filling evenly over the inside of the sponge
Roll up the filled sponge

For the icing

Put the topping butter into a bowl and beat it until it is light and fluffy
Sieve the icing sugar into the bowl and beat until combined
Gently melt the chocolate and mix this into the bowl
Spread the topping over the rolled up sponge
Drag a fork or skewer through the icing to create a log texture effect

Adapted from Doves Farm

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Luxury mince pies

My home-made luxury mincemeat has been ‘resting’ nicely for a month. It’s now just about ready for me to make my first batch of mince pies.

We’ve got the luxury mincemeat, so how about a bit of luxury pastry too?!

I’ve gone for a buttery shortcrust pastry flavoured with almond. The flavours work so well together – and make for the perfect Christmas treat.

Compliment them with a cup of tea or glass of mulled wine, comfy chair and real fire (sleeping dog optional). It’s what Christmas (in fact, winter in general) is all about for us.

Click here to save my recipe to Pinterest for later!

Luxury mince pies

2017-11-23 11:42:40

Yields 12

For the mincemeat

For the pastry

180g/6⅓oz plain flour
70g/2½oz 'tant pour tant' (35g/1¼oz icing sugar + 35g/1¼oz ground almonds)
pinch of salt
125g/4½oz very cold butter, cubed
1½-2tbs cold water
A little beaten egg

Add ingredients to shopping list

If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it

Instructions

Put the flour, icing sugar, ground almonds and salt in a food processor. Pulse a couple of times to combine
Add the butter and pulse again until you get to the fine breadcrumb stage
Whilst still pulsing, add the ice cold water until the mixture begins to get lumpy - like dry scrambled eggs
Empty ⅔ of the pastry on to 2 lengths of cling film layered one over the other at right angles
Form the dough into a ball by lifting & bringing together the 4 ends of the cling film. Repeat with the remaining ⅓ of the pastry
Chill in the fridge for ½ to 1 hour
Once chilled, preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
Grease a 12-hole or two, 6-hole muffin tins
Lightly flour your work surface, remove your larger ball of dough from the fridge, unwrap and divide it into 12 equal pieces (about 20-22g each)
One by one, roll each piece of dough into a ½cm thick round shape. Cut into perfect circles with a cookie cutter (or upturned drinking glass if you don't have one) that's slightly wider than the hole of your muffin tin. **Rolling each pie case individually means that you don't overwork the pastry by re-rolling over & over again**
Gently press the pastry rounds into the muffin tin holes (handy hint: use a small lump of pastry to do this if you have long fingernails!)
Spoon mincemeat into each pastry case and press down gently to level. Don't overfill
Get the smaller batch of dough out of the fridge and again divide into 12 equal pieces (about 11g each)
One by one, roll each piece of dough into a ½cm thick round shape. Cut into shapes with a cookie cutter. I used a star-shaped cutter but you can make other Christmas-y shapes like holly leaves, snowflakes, fir trees and the like!
Top each pie with the shaped pastry before brushing the tops with a little beaten egg
Bake for 12-15 minutes
Allow to cool in the tin completely before removing
Put on a cooling rack or serving plate and sprinkle/dredge with icing sugar

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/