This is what I made for pudding on Christmas day. As we had our main family dinner on Christmas Eve with our traditional trifle I had free reign for pudding ideas on Christmas day. I've had this recipe tucked away for a year or two so I felt it was about time I tried it.
I thought a steamed/boiled pudding was a really good choice as it can be left to simmer away on the hob while you finish attending to/eating your Christmas dinner.
It's a very sweet pudding, toffee obviously being the predominant flavour, so you can make your mind up whether that's a good or bad thing. Personally, I always think it's good. As much as I love cheese, I will never understand people who pick the cheese and biscuit platter as a dessert at restaurants. Really, that's not a dessert!
I really liked the addition of apples to what is essentially a sticky toffee pudding. It added a freshness to an otherwise rich dessert. It was the perfect comforting pudding to tuck into at the end of Christmas day.
So what did you all make for Christmas? Do you tend to make the same thing or try a new pudding each year?
Toffee apple pecan pudding
So what did you all make for Christmas? Do you tend to make the same thing or try a new pudding each year?
Toffee apple pecan pudding
A Mary Berry recipe. Copied down off the tv whilst watching one of the Great British Bake Off Masterclass episodes last year (I think.)
For the toffee sauce:
300ml pouring cream (I used double cream)
100g light muscovado sugar
75g softened butter
For the pudding:
A 2pt pudding basin, greased with butter
125g light muscovado sugar
125g softened butter
2 beaten eggs
125g self-raising flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large cooking apple - peeled, cored and chopped into small chunks
75g pecans, chopped
Put all the toffee sauce ingredients in a saucepan and stir over a low heat for roughly 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Pour 1/2 the toffee sauce into the bottom of the greased pudding basin, followed by half of the chopped pecans.
In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and muscovado sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Add the vanilla extract and self-raising flour and mix until just incorporated. Fold in the chopped apple. Pour the pudding mixture into the pudding basin, on top of the sauce (mine went in as a big lump so don't worry if you can't smooth it out, it didn't seem to affect the finished pudding.)
Cut out a disc from greaseproof paper and lay it on top of the basin. Lay out a large square of foil and fold a pleat in the centre (to allow steam to escape) and seal the foil around the basin. Fold a rectangular strip of foil to make a cradle for lifting the basin. Place a jam jar lid or a sideplate in the centre of a large saucepan/pot (must be taller than the pudding basin) and place the basin on top. Half fill the pot with boiling water and put the lid on. Leave to simmer for 2 1/2 hours.
When ready to serve, reheat the sauce with the remaining pecans and turn out the pudding on a large dish. The pudding easily serves four people.