Ellie’s Christmas Pudding Chronicles: Fruit Soaking
I’m not British, but I’m interested in some of their Christmas traditions. The most interesting one for me is the Christmas pudding. Making wishes by mixing a cake with breadcrumbs, liquor, eggs and dried fruit, steaming it and then setting it on fire five weeks later is an event. Jesus is probably involved somewhere in here, but I don’t care. I’m making Christmas pudding this year and I’d like you to join me. Welcome to the first part of my six-part Chronicles of Christmas Pudding.
I know, Thanksgiving isn’t even here yet, so why write about Christmas pudding now? Well, part of the wonderful strangeness of this mahogany-colored dessert is that it is traditionally made on the last Sunday before Christmas. In pagan parlance, it’s the Sunday after Thanksgiving (or the five Sundays before Christmas, if that helps). It is not prepared in advance for party preparation and is not frozen. Simply store at room temperature for a very long time and, if desired, lubricate with cognac once a week. I’ve decided to call this process “baking the cake,” but we’ll cross that pond later. Usually the pudding is made on a Sunday, which means the weekly maintenance happens on Sundays, but I think now is the best time to stock up on ingredients, check the weekly steps, and share my observations. On Saturdays I’ll tell you what I made and what tools and ingredients I needed, and you can take care of your pudding on Sundays.
Why make Christmas pudding?
I have a penchant for desserts that are unusual for me. It’s part culinary curiosity and part thrill without much risk. The worst thing that can happen is I waste my time on something that tastes terrible. The best part is that I am falling in love with the food and the process and may be starting a new holiday tradition for myself and my family. Dried fruit doesn’t turn me off, so the odds are in my favor.
How do you do it?
Christmas pudding (also called plum pudding or fig pudding) is a process and that’s part of the fun. You mix it up and steam it on “Stirring Sunday,” which is the following Sunday (after Thanksgiving). Then you store it. Granted, it’s pretty inactive, but I plan to do some extra “feeding.” Once a week I give my pudding a few tablespoons of brandy. Apart from the little satisfaction of caring for homemade pudding, this should add flavor and moisture to the cake and allow me to check how it’s setting. When Christmas finally arrives, the pudding is steamed again to warm it through. It is then treated with a significant brandy flambé for serving.
Week 1: Soaking fruits
Since I don’t have a family recipe, I use Nigella Lawson’s The Ultimate Christmas Pudding as my North Star. First of all, she’s British. I appreciate her style of eating as well as her approach to cooking and trust her to feed me. She looks like someone who would crush an entire cheesecake with me and then we “need something salty.”
In her recipe, she suggests soaking the dried fruit overnight or for a week. Soak a mixture of currants, raisins and prunes in sherry. Her recipe is in grams, but I’ve also included cup sizes if you don’t have a scale (but you really should get one ). I found all my dried fruit at my local ShopRite. In the US, sultana is commonly called golden raisin and sometimes “sultana raisin”.
I’m having trouble finding Pedro Ximenez Sherry, which uses the grape of the same name. The liquor store in my part of Brooklyn sells the only sherry and that’s what I used. Since I’ll be feeding the pudding brandy later, I think I’ll spend the money on some quality brandy next week. If you don’t drink alcohol, you can still eat a wonderful pudding. Replace the booze with an equal amount of any fruit juice you like.
Ingredients:
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150 grams (1 cup + 2 tablespoons) currants
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150 grams (1 cup) golden raisins
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150 grams (1 cup) coarsely chopped prunes
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175 ml (¾ cup) Pedro Ximenez sherry (use juice as a non-alcoholic substitute)
Quarter the prunes and combine them with the other ingredients in a container or zip-top bag. Cover the container and set it aside overnight or for a week.
I stir the fruit once a day and will continue to do so until I’m ready for Sunday Day. Technically for me it would be Wednesday or Thursday, but if you’re doing things the traditional way, soak the fruit a little before next Sunday.
Next week’s episode of The Christmas Pudding Chronicles is going to be hot. I know I’ll need a large, wide pan with a lid, some foil, and a bowl that can hold about six cups of batter. I’ll tell you what works and what doesn’t. In the meantime, get wet.