Gilligan's Gourmet: Christmas pudding with brandy butter

Continuing our Christmas preparations, last week we focused on the traditional British Christmas cake, this week we will look to the Irish plum pudding.

Plum cake is still a traditional Christmas food {God knows why I hear you say}.

It was often prepared a year before making its appearance at the holiday table. Plumcake (and fruitcake) is like fine wine—it needs time to allow the full flavor to develop.

Plumcake appears to have evolved from plum pudding. A good plum pudding, whose recipe was a closely guarded family secret, was cooked then allowed to ripen in a cupboard where it grew hard and dry. The older it got, the harder it grew.

Plum pudding was steamed prior to serving to make it moist and therefore edible. My theory is that cooks soon learned they could keep the pudding moist and preserve it by soaking it in liqueur. Thus plum pudding became plumcake aka fruitcake.

Whatever the origin of fruitcake it has gotten a particularly bad reputation as something to be shunned or thrown about like a medicine ball. However, a good fruitcake, rich and sweet with molasses or brown sugar along with a cup of afternoon tea is something that must be tried.

IRISH CHRISTMAS PLUM PUDDING
With Brandy Butter

This is a classic Christmas dessert, but why is it called Plum Pudding when there are no Plums in it? Beats me! The best thing to do with this cake is to pour the brandy butter over it, set it on fire and when Aunt Maureen has fell asleep at the table letting out silent but deadly farts-push it in front of her and get everyone to scream “Fire”-that’s what the holidays are all about-family.

Ingredients

12oz currants
4oz sultanas
4oz raisins
4oz mixed candied peel
8oz peeled and cored apples
1 lemon & 1 orange (grated rind and juice)
12oz shredded suet
2oz chopped almonds
2oz chopped walnuts
12oz plain flour
1 level teaspoon salt
2 level teaspoon mixed spice
8oz soft brown sugar
8oz castor sugar
4oz glace cherries
12oz fresh breadcrumbs
4 eggs
2 tablespoons brandy
7oz stout (Guinness)

Method

Grease 3 pudding bowls of varying sizes. Place circular greased pieces of tin foil around the bottom of the bowls. Put the chopped nuts, peel, cherries, apples, lemon and orange rind into a large bowl. Add the flour, spice, salt, breadcrumbs, suet and sugars to it and mix well. Now add the lemon, orange juice, brandy and eggs and again mix well. It is an Irish tradition to ask each of the members of your family to stir the mixture for luck!

Now cover the mixture with a towel and leave overnight. This is very important. Next day, mix again and place the mixture into the prepared bowls. Don't fill the bowls right up to the top. This leaves room for the pudding to expand when it is cooking. Cover with double layer of greased greaseproof paper and a layer of tin foil. Put each of the bowls in a large saucepan. Fill the saucepan half way up with boiling water and maintain this level by adding more boiling water during the cooking. A small saucer placed in the bottom of the saucepan prevents the pudding bowl from moving around.

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Nster.com