What is your favourite Xmas pudding recipe?

[susie_flo]

People of LJ, would any of you care to recommend your fav recipe?
 
I asked this question the other day on an internet community full of good cooks, but unfortunately the first response was a bit of a thread-killler...   (someone felt the need to tell me that I have left it too late to make a Christmas pudding).  Yeah...  thanks, Mrs Beeton.
  
So please accept that I am not organised enough to make my Xmas pudding in the summer, hence I shall be making mine on Stir Up Sunday along with (apparently) Gill Archer and the rest of the culinary sluggards in the UK.  I've never managed to make one earlier than this, but surely 5 weeks of maturing is better than nowt, eh? 
 
So would any of you kitchen gimps care to share a fav recipe?  My cook books and the interweb are offering me billions to choose from.  I think last time I used a sleb chef recipe which had quite a lot of orange zest and was rather nice and boozy, but I forget whose it was.
   
Suggestions so far include a very old recipe with beer (Victorian, I think) which is quite tempting, and good old Delia.  (Have any of you tried Delia's?)  I'm also considering the one in the December Delicious Magazine which claims to be lighter than usual.  But any other recs would be v.welcome.
 

Comments

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

It's never too late to make one if you hate dried fruit and stodgy puddings. We don't even have pudding in our family! We sometimes make mandarins in caramel, but we'd all rather hit the port and stilton. That's not terribly helpful is it. I'm not good with this insistence on serving something so few people genuinely enjoy...

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

I grew up in a family like yours - we always had Xmas trifle instead of Xmas pud. However G loves Xmas pud and I've started to develop a liking for it too in recent years... it's become a bit of a novelty for me.

[chiller.livejournal.com]

Surely the classic is Delia? If you make two this year, you can save one for next Xmas, and start sneering about people starting to make their puds "far too late" in February 2012. ;)

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Yeah... the lazy mofos! ;-)
Delia is def on my shortlist.

[chiller.livejournal.com]

I met someone the other day who told me (randomly, in Tesco), that he had got Christmas all sewn up. It was "all done".

"What!?" I said, "Have you got the turkey and all that? You can't have already done the cooking? And have you already put up the deccies?"
"Oh no," he says, "the wife does that."

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Ha! Oh he of little clue...

[chiller.livejournal.com]

Yes. I suspect what he meant was "I bought the wife a box of chox." When his wife's probably at home secretly weeping over having bought the wrong sort of sultanas for the stollen.

[cookwitch.livejournal.com]

Pffft. Of course you haven't left it too late. Nuts to them I say.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, nuts to them indeed! Not to mention figs and prunes.

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

Have just realised that I have never made an xmas pud (my sister is the xmas pudding queen tho, so I shall ask her).

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

She says: "xmas puds are Delia with a twist, and the twist is fairly spontaneous.. make sure you include guinness and ginger wine and rum amongst all the other more predictable ingredients and you should be fine."

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank you. That sounds like a marv plan! Especially love the idea of adding rum & ginger wine.

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I've asked my chum Tone who makes his every year - will let you know what he says :-)

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

http://www.be-ro.com/recipe/showrec123.html

My friend Tone swears by this one :-)

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Nawwww - it's Be-Ro! I still use the Be-Ro book for all sorts of basic, trustworthy baking recipes like crumble and scones. Never thought to look in there for xmas pud.

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

He is a fab cook and he swears by his Bero book for almost everything - except he now does his xmas puds in a pressure cooker and so has adapted the recipe slightly but not sure how - not sure if it's ingredients or cooking time.

[kissmeforlonger.livejournal.com]

How bloody unhelpful! I hope something nasty happens to their steamer.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Yeah! :-p