Traditional Irish Christmas pudding recipe with brandy butter. Getty Images
Irish Christmas pudding topped off with brandy butter is the perfect ending to your holiday
Continuing our Christmas preparations, here's the ideal traditional Irish or Irish American Christmas pudding recipe. It doesn't contain any whiskey but there's plenty of brandy and Guinness to keep you happy.
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- Traditional Irish Christmas cake recipe the whole family will enjoy
Plumcake is still a traditional Christmas food in Ireland. (God knows why I hear you say!)
It was often prepared a year before making its appearance at the holiday table. Plumcake (and fruitcake) is like a fine wine—it needs time to allow the full flavor to develop.
Plumcake appears to have evolved from the plum pudding. A good plum pudding, whose recipe was a closely guarded family secret, was cooked then allowed to ripen in a cupboard where it grew hard and dry. The older it got, the harder it grew.
Plum pudding was steamed prior to serving to make it moist and therefore edible. My theory is that cooks soon learned they could keep the pudding moist and preserve it by soaking it in liqueur. Thus plum pudding became plumcake aka fruitcake.
Whatever the origin of fruitcake, it has gotten a particularly bad reputation as something to be shunned or thrown about like a medicine ball.
However, a good fruitcake, rich and sweet with molasses or brown sugar along with a cup of afternoon tea is something that must be tried.
This is a classic Christmas dessert, but why is it called Plum Pudding when there are no Plums in it? Beats me!
The best thing to do with this cake is to pour the brandy butter over it, set it on fire and when Aunt Maureen has fallen asleep at the table letting out silent but deadly farts, push it in front of her and get everyone to scream “Fire!” That’s what the holidays are all about: family.
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Irish Christmas plum pudding recipe
Ingredients
- 12oz currants
- 4oz sultanas
- 4oz raisins
- 4oz mixed candied peel
- 8oz peeled and cored apples
- 1 lemon & 1 orange (grated rind and juice)
- 12oz shredded suet
- 2oz chopped almonds
- 2oz chopped walnuts
- 12oz plain flour
- 1 level teaspoon salt
- 2 level teaspoon mixed spice
- 8oz soft brown sugar
- 8oz castor sugar
- 4oz glace cherries
- 12oz fresh breadcrumbs
- 4 eggs
- 2 tablespoons brandy
- 7oz stout (Guinness)
Method
Grease 3 pudding bowls of varying sizes. Place circular greased pieces of tin foil around the bottom of the bowls.
Put the chopped nuts, peel, cherries, apples, lemon and orange rind into a large bowl.
Add the flour, spice, salt, breadcrumbs, suet, and sugars to it and mix well.
Now add the lemon, orange juice, brandy, and eggs and again mix well.
It is an Irish tradition to ask each of the members of your family to stir the mixture for luck!
Now cover the mixture with a towel and leave overnight. This is very important.
Next day, mix again and place the mixture into the prepared bowls.
Don't fill the bowls right up to the top. This leaves room for the pudding to expand when it is cooking.
Cover with a double layer of greased greaseproof paper and a layer of tin foil.
Put each of the bowls in a large saucepan. Fill the saucepan halfway up with boiling water and maintain this level by adding more boiling water during the cooking.
A small saucer placed in the bottom of the saucepan prevents the pudding bowl from moving around.
Cooking times
- Allow 9 hours boiling time for a 2-pint pudding.
- Allow 7 hours for a 1 and a half-pint pudding.
- Allow 5 hours for a 1-pint pudding.
On the day you want to eat the pudding, heat it up in a microwave, douse it in brandy and set it alight. When the fire has gone out, serve with cream, custard or brandy butter.
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Irish Christmas brandy butter recipe
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons softened, unsalted butter
- Half cup of castor sugar
- 3 tablespoons brandy
- Half teaspoon vanilla extract
Method
Put all the ingredients into a bowl. Beat with an electric beater until the mixture is smooth and well-integrated.
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours until the mixture is firm.
Now serve alongside plum pudding!
*Originally published in December 2020. Updated in December 2022.
What's your favorite Christmas recipe? Share in the comments!
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FAQs
The very first version of the pudding originated in the 14th century. The British-made porridge called "frumenty" is made of beef and mutton with raisins, wines, currants, and spices – quite a collection of tastes! At that time, pudding tended to be more like soup and was eaten in the time of Christmas preparation.
What is the difference between brandy butter and brandy cream? ›
Brandy butter uses caster sugar, giving the whipped unguent a pleasing graininess that dissolves on the tongue, part of the charm and a foil to the sticky pudding. There's an argument that brandy cream does a slightly better job though, as cream is much higher in milk sugar - lactose - than butter.
Can I use butter instead of suet in Christmas pudding? ›
It's best not to. Suet is a very hard fat, which melts slowly through a mixture during the cooking, whereas butter melts very easily and quickly through a mixture. They are different types of fats and shouldn't be substituted for each other.
Why was the Christmas pudding banned during history? ›
By the mid-1600s, plum pudding was sufficiently associated with Christmas that when Oliver Cromwell came to power in 1647 he had it banned, along with Yule logs, carol-singing and nativity scenes. To Cromwell and his Puritan associates, such merry-making smacked of Druidic paganism and Roman Catholic idolatry.
What is the most expensive Christmas pudding ever? ›
For Approximately $37,639.50 You Can Buy… The World's Most Expensive Christmas Pudding. If your ideal holiday celebration involves a $37,639.50 Christmas pudding, then you're in luck, because an outrageously expensive version is currently for sale online.
What is another name for brandy butter? ›
Hard sauce is a sweet, rich dessert sauce made by creaming or beating butter and sugar with rum (rum butter), brandy (brandy butter), whiskey, sherry (sherry butter), vanilla or other flavourings. It is served cold, often with hot desserts.
How alcoholic is brandy butter? ›
Nutritional Information per 100g
| Alcohol Content | 8% |
|---|
| Protein | 0 |
| Carbohydrate | 55 |
| Sugars | 54 |
| Fat | 31 |
7 more rowsTesco Finest Brandy Butter 200G.
Does brandy butter need to be refrigerated? ›
Our brandy butter is made by creaming together butter and sugar with brandy. Drizzle it over our mini Christmas pudding or pair them up and create a special gift this Christmas. Store at room temperature. Once opened refrigerate use within 4 weeks.
How long does shop bought brandy butter last? ›
Our answer
However they should all keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Make sure that the butter is tightly covered. The butter can also be frozen for up to 3 months and if frozen should be thawed overnight in the fridge and consumed within a week.
In England, brandy butter that's made with rum is specific to the Cumbria region of northern England where it is known as Cumberland Rum Butter. To call it hard “sauce” is something of a misnomer as the consistency is fairly firm and spreadable.
Why did my Christmas pudding go mouldy? ›
For the pudding, the most likely cause of mould is moisture. If it's steamed for 8 hours, left to cool completely and then you replace the paper and foil.
Does Christmas pudding contain butter? ›
Mix the almonds, apples, candied peel, nutmeg, raisins, flour, breadcrumbs, light muscovado sugar, eggs and 2 tbsp brandy or cognac in a large bowl. Holding the butter in its wrapper, grate a quarter of it into the bowl, then stir everything together.
What is traditionally found in a Christmas pudding? ›
A Christmas pudding should have 13 ingredients – that represent Jesus and the 12 disciples. Traditionally, these ingredients include: raisins, currants, suet, brown sugar, breadcrumbs, citron, lemon peel, orange peel, flour, mixed spices, eggs, milk and brandy.
What is Christmas pudding called in the USA? ›
It's also been called plum pudding or figgy pudding, which we know from songs, but what is it, exactly? It's nothing like what Americans call pudding, which is a custard of milk and eggs with flavoring. It's closer to fruitcake, although there's no cake in it, and it's boiled instead of baked.
What was the first Christmas pudding recipe? ›
It was made as bread pudding, by soaking stale bread in milk then adding suet, candied citron, nutmeg, eggs, raisins and brandy. It was a moulded dessert, cooked in boiling water for several hours, and served with a sweet wine sauce.
What pudding is traditionally eaten on Christmas Day? ›
Well Christmas pudding (also called plum pudding, Christmas pudd or Christmas pud) is traditionally the main dessert served with Christmas dinner in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and other countries, but it's origins are very much British. Plum pudding is a very rich dessert which is boiled or steamed.
What's the difference between Christmas pudding and figgy pudding? ›
“Figgy pudding is a specific type of Christmas or plum pudding that contains figs as a primary ingredient along with other dried fruits,” Heron says. “However, the name 'figgy pudding' doesn't always mean it exclusively contains figs. It could contain a variety of dried fruits in addition to or alongside figs.
