Category Archives: Plum

Traditional Christmas Pudding

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I know, I am annoyingly organised, but I made my Plum Pudding a few days ago and it’s tightly wrapped and sitting in the fridge, ready to be re-steamed on Christmas Eve. I made my first Christmas pudding last year, and it really was yummy (even better the next morning). And you do almost all the work long before you eat it, so there’s almost no preparation on the day. Suits me.

I got a pudding basin with a lid last year from Moore Wilson’s for about $25. The lid fastening is a little dodgy so I don’t rely on it solely when lifting the basin in and out of the giant pot of hot water, but other than that, cooking the pudding is a cinch.

However, I’m not really sure how one goes about steaming the pudding without such a basin. I guess you can use any heat-proof bowl and do some serious tin foil work on the top. I know there is also the method of tying the pudding up in calico and suspending it into the hot water from a stick. These look awesome but a leeeeeeetle daunting for me.

I mashed this recipe together from all the recipes I could find in my books, taking the yummiest looking bits out of each recipe. I also refuse to use suet, so this recipe uses butter. It seemed to work ok!

As with Christmas Cake, I think the important thing about a Christmas Pudding is the quality of the fruit. So I buy a mixture of fancy dried fruits from the bulk bin (this time around it was prunes – obviously, so I could call it a plum pudding – strawberries, crystallised ginger, cranberries, cherries, apricots, dates and apple chunks). Then I top the fruit up to the quantity listed in the recipe with bought cake fruit mix. Other possibilities include currants, sultanas, mixed peel, raisins, figs, etc.

Time for a Little Something’s Christmas Pudding
Serves 6-8 at least

2 cups flour
75g butter, softened
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
3½ cups mixed dried fruit (see above), chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
½ tsp ground ginger
½ cup golden syrup
½ cup trim milk
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 orange, grated rind
1 lemon, grated rind

To get ready, spray a pudding basin and the inside of its lid with cooking spray. You really don’t want to go to all this trouble and have it stick. Get a Very Big Pot (a stockpot is really the only answer) and half fill it with hot water, and get it heating on medium heat so it’s boiling by the time you’re ready to start steaming the pudding. In the bottom of this Very Big Pot, you need a trivet, or something the pudding basin can sit on so it’s not on the floor of the pot. I have a shallow ceramic baking dish which I turn upside down.

Place the flour in a large bowl (I use my cake mixer), and rub the softened butter in using your fingertips. Add the brown sugar, chopped dried fruit and spices, and mix to combine.

Warm the milk in the microwave (just a little – 20 seconds) in a medium bowl, and stir in the baking soda to dissolve it. In another little jug or bowl, warm the golden syrup in the microwave (again, 20-30 seconds), and add that to the milk, along with the eggs and grated lemon and orange rind. Beat with a fork, and pour it onto the dry ingredients.

Stir (or turn the cake mixer on) until the pudding batter is well mixed.

Pour the mixture into your prepared pudding basin, making sure there’s at least an inch or so of room at the top, as the pudding will rise as it steams. Put the lid on tightly and carefully lower into your Very Big Pot of boiling water, sitting it on whatever platform you have devised. When I cooked my pudding, the water came about a third or a half way up the pudding basin. Put the lid on the Very Big Pot and gently boil the pudding for 4 hours. Check back every so often to make sure your Very Big Pot still has enough boiling water in it, and top up if needed.

After 4 hours, carefully remove the pudding basin from the Very Big Pot. Take the lid off and invert the basin over a cooling rack. Fingers crossed, the pudding will slide out nicely and sit smugly cooling on the rack.

When it’s cold, wrap it first in tin foil, and then in a plastic supermarket bag with a knot tied snugly at the top. I’ve put mine at the back of the bottom shelf in my fridge, and there it shall stay until I need it on Christmas Eve. Then, I will unwrap it, poke it a few times with a skewer, pour a couple of tablespoons of brandy over it, put it back in its basin, and repeat the steaming process for another 2-3 hours. Then I’ll turn it out onto a serving plate, pour about ½ cup of brandy over it, set it on fire, and carry it to the table to rapturous applause. When the flames have burned themselves out (and, fingers crossed, not set fire to my hair), I will slice it up and serve it with my husband’s family Rum Sauce.

Now, there is one problem with this blog post. I forgot to take a photo of my steamed pudding before I wrapped it snugly and put it in the fridge. D’oh. But to be honest, a steamed, undecorated pudding is not a thing of beauty.

For your viewing pleasure, I have found an image of a Christmas Pudding online, in case you haven’t seen one before. Obviously, mine looks exactly like this. Exaaaaactly.

(image found here)

Good luck if you decide to try one!

Plum Rugelach

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These little pastry creations are Rugelach. Have you ever heard of them? They are new to me, but I have fallen for them. Big time.

Rugelach are a traditional Jewish pastry – a little crescent made from cream cheese or sour cream pastry wrapped around a sweet filling. I discovered them in New York (next to the fug bahs), and have been desperate to recreate them at home.

The rugelach I bought looked more like pinwheels; they had just been rolled into a log and sliced, but all reputable recipes I’ve found have them cut into wedges, then rolled up from the wide end in – like croissants. This makes them messier and stickier but (or maybe therefore) infinitely more adorable.

Discovering the cream cheese pastry when you take the first bite is amazing. I don’t think I’ve come across proper cream cheese pastry in bakeries here, and I’ve gotta say, we are missing out, people! Especially in these rugelach with sweet, jammy fillings – it is like a toasted bagel with cream cheese and jam, but in pastry form.

I have many ideas for things to fill rugelach with (including raspberry & currant, apricot & walnut, dark chocolate, almond cream…). This time I used some of my plum & blackcurrant jam, along with a few raisins.

Plum & Blackcurrant Rugelach
Adapted from several recipes at and via kosherfood.about.com
Makes many many many.

Cream Cheese Pastry
200g butter
250g cream cheese (not spreadable or lite)
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour

Fruit Filling
Plum & Blackcurrant Jam (or any berry flavour, really)
½ cup raisins or currants

To glaze
1 egg
2-3 Tbsp sugar

To make the pastry, cream the butter and cream cheese together. Add the sugar vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the sifted flour and mix lightly. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for at least an hour (I made mine the day before).

When you’re ready to make the rugelach, preheat the oven to 180°, and line a couple of baking trays with baking paper.

Divide your dough into four. Lightly flour a surface to roll on – keeping in mind that you need to cut the dough on it, so get a board if you’re not ok with cutting directly on your bench!. Roll your first portion out into a circle, about 3mm thick. Give the jam a good stir to loosen it up, and spread it over the circle, starting from the centre and moving outwards, and leaving about 2cm clear at the outside. Don’t spread too thickly or the pastry will be too messy to bake, and that would be tragic. Sprinkle the raisins on top of the jam.

This is where it gets sticky. Get a sharp knife and cut the circle into wedges like a pizza; I think I cut mine into 10-12 wedges. Starting from the outside (wide) edge, roll each wedge up. Ideally you end up with the point on the underside of the crescent, so you can place it seam-side down on a prepared tray. Repeat with the other three portions of dough.

Brush each pastry with a little beaten egg, and sprinkle with sugar, and bake 20-25 minutes, or until golden.

Plum and Blackcurrant Jam

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I’ve been away for a few days … but now back in the land of the blogging and ready with a backlog yummy things to post over the next few days!

Last week I came across some super cheap plums at my local market and bought up large. You might say I had plums for jam.

This is a recipe from Alexa Johnston’s Ladies, A Plate: Traditional Home Baking (by the way, if you love baking, you NEED this book. Check out Alexa’s website and/or buy the books here). It was originally an Aunt Daisy recipe. I’ve adjusted quantities slightly – this recipe fills 3-4 standard supermarket jam jars.

I was extra keen on this as we had a blackcurrant bush at home when I was little, but I hadn’t eaten these delicious little berries for years! Now they’re firmly back on my favourite fruit list.

Plum & Blackcurrant Jam

750g plums (black doris would be lovely, but I used the lighter-fleshed plums and they are still delicious)
1 1/2 cups water
200g blackcurrants (fresh or frozen)
1kg caster sugar

Before you start, get your jars and lids ready. Wash the jars in hot soapy water, rinse in hot water and put them in the oven at 150(c) on a tray. Leave them in there while you make the jam. Bring a small saucepan of water to boil on the stove, and put your lids in there. Leave them in the boiling water for a few minutes - then you can turn the heat off but it’s easiest to let the lids sit in the pot while the jam’s being made. If you don’t need your jam to keep for very long in the pantry (i.e. if you expect to eat it within a month or so), don’t worry about boiling the lids, just get them clean and dry.

Also, put 3 or 4 saucers in the freezer. I’ll explain later.

So for the jam, chop the plums up and get rid of the stones. I leave my plums quite chunky but if you want a smoother jam, chop them more finely. Put the plums in a large pot with the water, and bring to the boil.

Simmer until the fruit is softening, then drop in the blackcurrants – if you’re using frozen ones, let the mix cook for a couple of minutes to thaw them. Then add the sugar and stir over a gentle heat until it has dissolved. Increase the heat and bring the jam to a fast boil. Watch it carefully to make sure it doesn’t boil over, and stir it regularly to stop it catching on the bottom of the pot.

Now, to test when the jam has cooked enough to set. This takes a bit of getting used to. I have a tendency to overcook jams ever so slightly — you just get the feel of it after a few goes (or is it go’s? or gos? Help! The linguistic degree in me is screaming in agony! ‘Go’ is not really a noun! How can it be pluralised????!!!).

So. Get one of the chilled saucers from the freezer, and drop a small teaspoonful of jam onto it. Let it cool for 10-15 seconds, and push your finger through it gently. If it’s ready, the surface should winkle slightly in front of your finger, and the jam should stay clearly separated where you’ve divided it. If it’s not ready, it will kind of look like half set raspberry jelly.

Keep testing it every couple of minutes, and keep in mind that the jam will still be cooking while you run your saucer test, so it can burn quickly. If you do happen to take it off the heat too early and put it in jars and finish up, and then you find the jam doesn’t set — you can actually put it all back in the pot, and boil it again until it’s ready, and then re-jar it. If you can be bothered. If not, who’s for plum and blackcurrant dessert topping?

Once your jam is ready, take the pan off the heat immediately. Carefully take the hot jars out of the oven and put them on a board. Getting the hot jam out of a hot pot into hot jars and sealing them with hot lids is a bit annoying, but you work out your own methods eventually. I pour my jam into a glass jar with a decent spout and pour it into the jars, then put the lids on using a tea towel to stop getting burnt. As the jam cools, the little button will suck down (like when you bought the jam from the supermarket). Now you can put it in the larder!

One further tip. This is very important. Once you’ve made your jam and gone to all that effort, don’t leave the jars sitting precariously on the edge of the bench while you fly around the kitchen unloading the dishwasher.