Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Traditional Christmas Pudding with Rum Sauce


Every year we used to buy a Christmas pudding to steam for dessert, usually for Boxing Day, and proceed to smother it with rum sauce and dive in. Personally I was not a huge fan of the actual Christmas pudding but drown it in enough rum sauce and it was delicious. 
The last 2 years we haven't been able to find any Christmas pudding in town so I decided to make my own this year. I figured it would be something really complicated and expensive to make. Nope. Turns out it is pretty darned easy and not expensive at all. 
Best of all? It tastes even better than store bought. 
I found this recipe in the tin under our cupboard so I'm not sure who to credit for the original recipe. The rum sauce recipe is our mother's. 


Traditional Christmas Pudding with Rum Sauce

Pudding
Ingredients
3/4 cup butter, room temp
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 cups raisins
1 cup grated carrot
1 cup peeled and grated potato
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
1 tsp baking soda

Rum Sauce
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup whipping cream (or heavy cream)
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp rum

Directions
Prepare pudding - Spray heat safe bowl with cooking spray, set aside. (Makes one large pudding or 2 or 3 medium sized puddings)
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until smooth, scraping down bowl as needed. Add in raisins, carrot, potato, and egg.


Beat until well combined.
In a separate bowl, stir together flour, spices, and baking soda.


Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until well combined. Batter will be very stiff. 
Fill the prepared bowls with the batter, leaving about 1 inch between the top of the bowl and the pudding for it to rise. 


Cover the bowl with a piece of parchment paper, followed by a piece of tinfoil, secured with a string. 
Place in the top of a double boiler.


Cover the double boiler with a lid and steam the pudding for 2 to 3 hours, until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. (I did 3 medium puddings and 2 hours was just right. A larger pudding will require more time!) Be sure to check that the bottom of the double boiler does not run dry! 
When pudding is done, remove from steamer and place bowl on wire rack.


Run a knife around the inside of the bowl, then invert on to a serving plate. Serve warm with rum sauce. **NOTE** - Pudding can also be made to this stage, cooled, and then either frozen or placed in fridge. Puddings can be frozen for several months or refrigerated for several days if covered well. 


If you freeze your puddings, simply let thaw in the fridge and then steam again for about 20 minutes to reheat. No need to cover the pudding, just place it in the top of a double boiler and steam until heated through. 


While pudding is steaming, prepare rum sauce.
Prepare rum sauce - In a medium saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter, cream, and vanilla. Bring to a boil and then simmer, stirring constantly, for one minute. Remove from heat and stir in the rum. Serve warm over the pudding.
To serve - Place warm pudding on a serving plate.


Cut slices and place on individual serving plates. 


Pudding can be served like this.... but is ever so much better with rum sauce!


Top with as much of the warm rum sauce as you like. 


Add a dash of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. This is optional but makes it even more amazing. 
FYI - If you don't have a double boiler you can steam the puddings by using a large pot. Simply place a mason jar ring or something similar on the bottom of the pot, place the bowl of pudding on top of the ring to keep it off the bottom of the pot, pour water into the pot, no more than 1/3 of the way up the side of the bowl, then cover the pot and steam for 2 - 3 hours, until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Make sure the pot doesn't boil dry. 
Who knew carrots and potatoes could make such a delicious dessert?

13 comments:

  1. Can you cook this in a slow cooker and, if so, for how long?

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    Replies
    1. I'm afraid I'm not much help. It needs to be steamed so I'm not sure how it would work in a slow cooker.

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  2. You can cook it in an instant pot. Put 1 1/2 c water in pot, put trivet in and put wrapped pudding on trivet. Cook for 1 hr.

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  3. My grandma always canned hers and bought mason jars full out of the cellar. I would love todo the same. Does anyone know if we would need to steam then can or???

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    1. My Mom did too and I have always done it that way too. Fill the sterile 1 quart jars 2/3 full with pudding batter. Seal with sterile snap lids and bands hand tight. Get your canning pot with canning trivet in bottom and water boiling, put jars in once it is real close to boiling and top up water to like the neck of the jar and steam cook for about 2 and a half to 3 hours. Lift out and wait for it to cool some and check for seals to be all down and not raised up. I have kept my moms recipe, very similar to this for 5 years in jars if we don’t eat it before that!

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    2. How the heck do you serve it out of a glass jar?

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    3. Use the straight sided preserving jars, when ready to use run a knife around inside of jar and slid it out. Just slice and serve.

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  4. I have cooked my pudding in a slow cooker and used the LOOK bags and water in the slow cooker, it came out great, very moist.

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  5. Replies
    1. Appears to be cooking bags in Canada. It's a brand, you can google or search Bing or whatever search engine you use. This site won't let me paste a photo of what they look like.

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  6. Can it be done in a oven in a water bath.

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  7. This is so similar to the Christmas pudding that has been passed down in my family. It seems Christmas is not complete without this pudding! 😊❤️🙏🏻

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  8. Here I am, hungry, lying in bed way after midnight, and I come across this! My stomach is growling. I have to bookmark this page. It sounds right up my alley as far as desserts! :D

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