Beautiful, isn’t it?
And I promise you, it tastes as good as it looks 🙂
Every year, at the end of November or begining of December, I make this Christmas pudding, and every year it turns out simply wonderful. It’s packed with nuts, raisins, candied peel and, of course, brandy! I honestly don’t think anyone notices it is gluten free, it’s so delicious and moist.
This recipe is really easy – the only tricky bits about it are:
- you must remember to make your pudding early, so it has time to mature – I usually make it three to four weeks before Christmas.
- the pudding needs to be steamed for six hours, so make sure you don’t start baking at 8 pm, or you’ll be up half the night!
So.. here is what you need to do to have a perfectly delicious, gluten free Christmas pudding for 25th December!
Ingredients:
- 250 g sultanas
- 100 g chopped dates
- 25 g mixed peel
- 50 g skinned chopped almonds
- 1 apple – grated
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
- the zest of an orange
- the zest of a lemon
- 2 eggs
- 75 ml apple juice
- 70 ml brandy
- 100 g plain gluten free flour
- 100 g brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 25 g butter (at room temperature)
Method:
- Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well – yes, I know, it’s as simple as that 😉 !
- Pour the mixture into a pudding bowl – if you don’t have one, a simple oven-proof glass bowl will do just fine.
- Cover the top of the bowl with baking paper and secure it with string.
- Cover the bowl with foil.
- Steam the pudding for six hours (yes, I know, it’s a long time!)
The steaming of the pudding is probably the trickiest stage of the recipe. If you have a steam oven, simply place the pudding into the oven, and steam it for six hours, making sure you check your water container regularly and add water when necessary.
If you don’t have a steam oven, you need to place the pudding bowl into a large saucepan. Add water to the saucepan, so it comes up to about half of the pudding bowl. Bring to the boil and then cover the saucepan; reduce the heat so the water is just simmering. Check it regularly and add water when necessary.
- Once the pudding is steamed, take it out of the oven or saucepan and leave it in the bowl with both the covering layers of baking paper and foil.
- Let it cool down and then wrap it up in a clean kitchen cloth.
- Place it in a cool place – not the fridge, but somewhere in your house where it’s not overheated.
On Christmas day, unwrap your Christmas pudding, and gently scrape a knife around the sides of the pudding. Then, place a pretty plate or dish on top of the bowl and turn it over. The pudding should detach itself from the bowl.
We then pour a bit (or even a lot 😉 ) of brandy on top of the pudding and light it, before savouring a lovely thin slice of it – I say thin slice, because there are usually many other delicious gluten free deserts served alongside the Christmas pudding, and we need to have a little taste of them all!
Hope you enjoy it!
