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

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
Vegetarian
Winter
Christmas
December

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.