The Chronicles of Ellie’s Christmas Pudding: Brandy Soaking
Every week is a big week when you’re making Christmas pudding. Welcome back to my Christmas Pudding Chronicles. This is week three of documenting my efforts to make one of the UK’s most common birthday cakes. While this wouldn’t be particularly compelling if I were living under the roof of a king as an American, it is truly a new Christmas experience.
If you’re joining me for the first time in this fruit cake fantasy, you can find out what Christmas pudding is and how to soak fruit here in Week 1 , and also read about how I steamed the cake . Typically, Christmas pudding is made five Sundays before Christmas and is fed once a week on Sundays. Each episode of this chronicle is published on a Saturday, so you can gather the necessary ingredients and start making pudding the next day. However, feel free to connect at any time. You don’t have to follow the rules like I do, and your pudding doesn’t have to age that long.
Finally I get to the “baking the cake” stage, which involves (totally optional) soaking it in brandy or another spirit like rum or whiskey. While you can skip this practice and wrap the pudding and store it in a dark place until Christmas, this step will add flavor and moisture. I admit, “feeding” the pudding was one of the steps I was most looking forward to. I’m not a big drinker, but I do enjoy a good cooking process that needs to be followed. Also, I want to check on my prune once a week to see how he is aging. If that happens when I fill my cake with alcohol, so be it.
As I’ve mentioned in my previous posts, I used Nigella Lawson’s recipe as a guide and tweaked a few things here and there. Her website also has some tips on how to “feed” it. I’ve checked this with other blogs and it appears that the general practice is to poke a few holes into the pudding once a week with a toothpick or skewer and spread a tablespoon or two of liqueur onto the cake. Easy enough.
Brandy selection
Before I could start soaking, however, I needed some real brandy. This week I decided to visit a very nice liquor store in Manhattan. Sorry, wine and spirits store. I was poorly prepared the first week when I needed to infuse dried fruit with sherry and ended up using a $6 bottle from the corner liquor store on my block in Brooklyn. There’s no shade on them, they just don’t specialize in sherry. Or options.
I thought a poor quality sherry would do just fine to plump up the sweet fruit, but the cake should be soaked in a good quality brandy. The brandy must be of a high enough quality to drink from a glass with Christmas pudding. I asked the folks at Flatiron Wines and Spirits for a brandy that would pair well with gingerbread or dark dried fruit. They led me to a gorgeous bottle of Neversink Spirits, Orchard Brandy , which is a blend of pear and apple brandy. This is an American Christmas pudding, so brandy made in New York seemed just right.
How to feed pudding
To feed the cake, use a toothpick, skewer, or even the pointy end of a meat thermometer. Open the Christmas pudding and poke holes in it. I spaced them about an inch apart and went around the circle about an inch and a half inside the edge of the cake. I then made another concentric ring of holes about an inch and a half from the first ring. It doesn’t have to be exact, it’s more of a guideline depending on the bowl you steamed the pudding in.
It usually seems that two tablespoons of brandy or other strong alcohol is the maximum. My only warning is that you can’t over-soak the pudding, but you can definitely over-soak it. Too much alcohol will make the pudding sticky or even cloudy. There are many opportunities for alcohol in the life of this dessert, so I used one tablespoon. Measure the brandy into a small bowl and use a pastry brush to spread the brandy over the surface and around the edges. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and place it back in its storage area.
What to pay attention to
Now that the pudding is in the setting stage, I’ll keep an eye out for any changes in color, smell, or moisture. When I fed him today, the cake still had an enticing spicy smell, although much more muted than when it was freshly steamed. The pudding seems well moistened, if not a little drier than the day it was steamed. I suspect that weekly brushings of brandy and covering the cake tightly will help keep it moist. Other sources say it’s normal for the cake to get a little darker while it sits, and I’ll be sure to report back on what I notice next week. Until then, happy brandy, enjoy your pudding.