Frances Bissell’s Christmas Pudding

Name: Frances Bissell’s Christmas Pudding
Yield: Serves 8-10; fills a 1.75-litre (3 pint) pudding basin
Ingredients: 230 g (8 oz, 4 loosely packed cups) fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs; 230 g (8 oz, 2 cups) each of roughly chopped muscatel (black) raisins, sultanas (yellow raisins) and dried apricots; 60 g (2 oz, ¾ cup) crumbled almond macaroons or amaretti; 140 ml (5 fl oz, scant ⅔ cup) fortified muscat wine, port, marsala or rich oloroso sherry; 4 medium free-range eggs; 60 g (2 oz, ½ cup) ground or flaked almonds; ½ tsp ground cardamom; ½ tsp ground cloves; 1 tsp ground mace; juice of 1 orange; 6 Tbsp or 1 miniature bottle of Cognac; 1 grated apple; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 2 Tbsp orange marmalade or candied orange peel; 1 Tbsp grated orange zest; 60 g (2 oz, ¾ cup) chopped almonds; ½ tsp ground allspice

Preparation info

Serves
8-10
; fills a 1.75-litre (3 pint) pudding basin

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Feast of Christmas

By Paul Levy

Published 1992

About

Ingredients

230 g (8 oz, 4 loosely packed cups) fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs
230

Dessert
December
Christmas
Winter
Vegetarian

Method

Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Put the marmalade, orange juice, eggs, brandy and wine in another large bowl, or in the blender or food processor, and beat until well blended and frothy. Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients. Mix until moist. Cover and let stand for a couple of hours at least and, if possible, overnight to let the spice flavours develop.