Sponsored post for The Royal Mint
The Royal Mint Christmas Pudding is packed with traditional ingredients including currants, raisins, sultanas, almonds brandy, citrus zest, and dark chocolate. Make this luxurious Christmas pudding with your kids on Stir-up Sunday!
The countdown to Christmas is on and this year I have been commissioned by The Royal Mint to share with you their very own Christmas Pudding recipe (created by Rachel Walker, Food Editor at The Sunday Times). The tradition of the Christmas Pudding dates back to the Victorian era when Prince Albert introduced the idea.
Up and down the land families would gather on Stir-Up Sunday (the last Sunday before Advent) and take turns to stir the pudding, adding a silver sixpence and making a wish before steaming it.
I remember my English grandmother’s Christmas Puddings and always hoped to find the sixpence in my bowl as it was a sign of good luck for the rest of the year!
Str-Up Sunday falls on 20th November this year (2016) so you have plenty of time to order your silver sixpence from The Royal Mint (order by 16th November).
Steeped in history The Royal Mint has been minting coins for over 1,000 years.
From the 13th century they were based at The Tower of London for 500 years. They moved onto Tower Hill in 1812 and have been in their current location in South Wales since 1967.
As well as providing millions of coins to the domestic market (circulative and commemorative) each year The Royal Mint also produces billions of coinage and blanks around the world.
It currently meets 15% of global demand, making it the world’s leading export mint!
When I grew up we didn’t have this tradition of Christmas Pudding making and Stir-Up Sunday in our house as my mother is Danish. There was plenty of baking done in the run-up to Christmas but none of it involved pudding.
The traditional Christmas pudding in Denmark is a rich and creamy Risalamande (Rice Pudding) with Cherry Sauce and a whole almond is traditionally hidden in it.
The lucky finder wins a prize. I can’t tell you the amount of pudding I ate as a child to try to get that almond – I didn’t even like it back then but now I love it!
I remember one year we were having Christmas in Denmark and one of the prizes was a huge marzipan pig. Being a marzipan addict I was on a mission to win.
However, it wasn’t to be as my Danish grandpa found the almond and chose a box of cigars as his prize.
So making this Christmas Pudding was a first in our household and I decided to let my daughter take the lead and I was her assistant.
We had great fun stirring up the pudding; spending quality time with my daughter and teaching her all about this Christmas tradition was lovely.
We both made a wish when The Royal Mint silver six pence went in (the boys were out, otherwise we’d have got them to come and have a stir and a wish too)!
In fact, it was so much fun that I definitely want to do this again next year and might even try and replicate my English grandmother’s old Christmas Pudding that I sadly never got the recipe for.
So if like me you’ve never made your own Christmas Pudding on Stir-Up Sunday then I hope you will have a go this year with your family. I can’t tell you how much it put us in the Christmas mood.
Alternatively, if you do make Christmas Puddings but are looking for a change, then I can thoroughly recommend The Royal Mint’s delicious recipe.
More Christmas Recipes
Here are some more festive recipes for you to try!
- Christmas Bundt Cake
- Crispy Clementine Cookies
- Cheat’s Mince Pies with a secret twist
- Stollen Croissants
- Christmas Soda Bread
- Christmas Coffee Truffles
- Risalamande – Traditional Danish Rice Pudding with Cherry Sauce
- Chocolate Orange Panettone Pudding
- Christmas Jam
Check out how Helen of Casa Costello got on with making her Christmas Pudding with her daughters and also Grace of Eats Amazing’s Gran’s Traditional Christmas Pudding.
Pin for later!
Do leave a comment and rating below when you’ve made this recipe as I love getting your feedback! You can also share your pictures by tagging @FabFood4All over on Instagram.
The Royal Mint Christmas Pudding & Stir-Up Sunday
Equipment
- The Royal Mint Six Pence
- 1 litre pudding/heat proof bowl
- Greaseproof paper
- Large elastic band
- String
- Stock pot
- Steamer basket/deep saucer/ramekin
- Tin foil
Ingredients
- 170 g sultanas
- 140 g currants
- 140 g raisins
- 200 ml water
- 30 g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground mace
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 55 g breadcrumbs
- 85 g shredded suet (vegetable fine) if you cannot get hold of suet, softened butter works just as well
- 40 g dark chocolate 70%, grated
- 1 cooking apple peeled and grated
- 85 g soft dark brown sugar
- 20 g chopped mixed peel
- 55 g blanched almonds roughly chopped
- 1 lemon zested
- 1 orange zested
- 1 tbsp black treacle
- 3 tbsp brandy
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 knob of butter for greasing
Instructions
- Put the sultanas, currants and raisins in a saucepan with the water. Bring to the boil, and simmer for three minutes. Leave to soak, uncovered, overnight.
- Sift the flour and spices into a mixing bowl.
- Add the breadcrumbs, suet or butter, grated chocolate, grated apple, brown sugar, mixed peel, almonds, lemon and orange zest.
- Mix well, using your hands to get rid of any lumps of butter and ensuring the mixture is fully blended together.
- Stir in the soaked fruit, which will have plumped-up overnight. Next, stir in the treacle, brandy and beaten egg.
- Mix well, and stand overnight. While this isn’t necessary, the marinating helps the spices soak in. Before you’re ready to cook, stir in the Royal Mint Six Pence. It’s traditional for everyone to give the pudding a turn with a wooden spoon at this stage, and make a wish.
- Use the knob of butter to grease the pudding bowl, and tip the Christmas pudding mixture into it.
- Cut one circle of greaseproof paper, which is a few inches bigger than the rim of the bowl. Use a large elastic band to secure it over the pudding bowl with a folded pleat running through the middle. This will allow room for the pudding to release excess steam. Cover the top with a piece of tin foil (same size as the greaseproof paper) and then tie it tightly with the string.
- Make a loop of string across the top, to fashion a handle, so the pudding can be easily lifted in and out of the pan.
- If you are using a steaming pot, pour some water into the bottom of the stock pot – about one eighth full – so that the steamer basket sits in the bottom, just above the water level. Bring the water to the boil, and place the Christmas pudding in the basket.
- If you don’t have a steamer basket, simply use the upturned saucer or ramekin so that the pudding basin is kept away from direct contact with the base of the pan. Then fill the stock pot with water to around half-way up the side of the pudding basin.
- Put on the lid, and steam at a gentle simmer for four hours. Keep an eye on the water to make sure that the pan doesn’t boil dry, and add more water from the kettle to keep it topped-up if needed.
- If the lid of the stock pot doesn’t fit on tightly, it’s not ideal, but not disastrous – as long as there’s plenty of steam circulating. Keep an even more careful eye on water levels though, as a loosely covered pot is more likely to boil dry.
- Lift the pudding out of the pan after four hours, making sure you keep the greaseproof lid on – that way you can store the Christmas pudding for up to two months.
- On Christmas Day, steam the pudding again for another two hours, and serve – perhaps with a sprig of holly on top, and a splash of brandy (and then light with a match).
Notes
NB: This is a commissioned post for The Royal Mint for which I was paid and all opinions are my own.
Jacqui Bellefontaine
A lovely look xmas pud and I too am intrigued about the chocolate. Not sure i would ever have thought of that but I can see how it would work
Camilla
Thank you Jacqui, dark chocolate does appear in lots of recipes these days as a flavour enhancer:-)
glenn hutton
This looks amazing and so moist… I think sometimes they can be very dry!
Camilla
Thank you Glenn:-)
William Gould
I remember helping my Nan make the Christmas Pudding, but I never remember finding the sixpence on Christmas Day though…
I think I also remember my Nan used to make all the family members give the pudding a stir while she was mixing it!
Camilla
Lovely William, my granny lived too far away so I never got to help with any Christmas baking with her but she made the most wonderful moist Christmas puddings and cake. I don’t remember finding the six pence either, perhaps it was a fix as they didn’t want kids choking on it:-)?
Heather Haigh
I really love Christmas pud – and one with a proper sixpence in – magic!
Camilla
Yes, great to keep this tradition alive:-)
Nadia
Sounds like a fun tradition! The Christmas pudding looks delicious and it was so sweet to let your daughter take the lead 🙂 it’s all about creating memories 😀
Camilla
Thanks Nadia, she’s a fabulous little baker so this was just her thing:-) And yes we had a lovely time doing this together, I think my biggest input was grating the chocolate and making the pudding cover:-)
Anosa
Would I be disliked if I said I don’t like Christmas Puddings? I know this one looks amazing and probably even more tasty but it was never our tradition so never really embraced them. But I love the idea of a gift for finding the silver sixpence
Camilla
We can’t all like everything, for me my only no no is blue cheese:-)
Rachel
I have never made my own Christmas Pudding but it is one of my favourite things in the world to eat x
Camilla
Well I think you should make one Rachel, it’s so easy and gets you in the festive mood:-)
Paul Wilson
I know this is heresy, but I like to do mine in the microwave instead of steaming for hours, comes out amazingly well.
Camilla
I won’t judge:-)
Paul Wilson
Glad to hear it. 🙂
Laura @ KneadWhine
I was thinking only the other day that I didn’t know where you could get a sixpence from these days!
I love the idea of finding an almond means a prize – although I think the almond itself would be a reward.
Camilla
Well that’s so fortunate Laura, now you know:-) Yes I think I’d like to add a prize to the finding of the six pence, that would be very lucky:-)
Lucy
Wow your Christmas pudding looks amazing, such a deep rich colour. I am intrigued by the addition of chocolate it must add a lovely hint of flavour.
Camilla
Thank you Lucy, the chocolate does add a subtle hint of flavour:-)