Christmas pudding questions

evilwitch

I've never made one and don't like the things to be honest but we've got the family round and i wanted to give it a go as they are all into the traditional christmas fayre.

I've found Delia's recipe but it says I need barley wine, rum and stout. I don't have any of these and don't want to go out buying them as what doesn't get used will get chucked as we will never drink them which seems a total waste.

Do I have to add these or can I sub them for say brandy which I'm buying for the christmas cake? Any alternate recipes?
Or would I be best off canning the making idea and just buying one?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/ideas

hilstep2000

You can use whatever booze you have, but stout gives it a good dark colour.

kabie

Sorry to butt in but a quick question.
Should I be making my pud and cake now? never really sure how far in advance to do it. Thanks.

jobbingmusician

Yes, now's about the right time.

JM is ashamed to admit she has never made either of these things, but has a sister who does them for the family every year.....

beachbeth

Even though its called barley wine, it actually more of a beer and comes in a 330ml can. Its £4.78 for 4 cans but you can buy them singly. I got mine from a local Off Licence. Stout also comes in a small bottle of 500ml for £1.46 and it is also in cans of 330ml and 440ml cans. So you wouldn't have to spend a lot or waste much buying them like this.

Its really only the rum that you would have to spend out on and Im sure you could substitute this. However, the smallest bottle of rum I found on the Tesco website was a 35cl for £6.99, Sainsbury's is £4.75 and at Asda its £4.27 for the same size.

I have made the Delia Christmas pudding and it is gorgeous! It smells lovely and tastes so lovely and fresh and homemade! I would wholeheartedly recommend it!

dannahaz

WHilst you could substitute brandy for the rum, and at a push you could replace the barley wine with more stout, there really is NO substitue for the stout.

I never drink rum, but I think it is lovely in this pudding.

I make LOTS of Delia's puddings every year (14 this year), and they are superb. Even people who don't normally like Christmas Puddings love these as they are so moist and flavoursome.

If your budget can stretch to it, I would recommend going with the recipe. As Beachbeth says, you can buy barley wine and stout cans singly at an off licence, and it isn't that expensive. You can use the left over rum to make rum sauce of rum butter, or look at deliaonline for other rum related recipes.

beachbeth

dannahaz wrote:

Even people who don't normally like Christmas Puddings love these as they are so moist and flavoursome.

Im one of these people! Ive never liked Christmas pudding. But this Delia one is really tasty and I could just die for the smell of it! You've got me going now and Im going to make one myself this week!

katieowl_2

evilwitch wrote:

I've found Delia's recipe but it says I need barley wine, rum and stout. I don't have any of these and don't want to go out buying them as what doesn't get used will get chucked as we will never drink them which seems a total waste.

Do I have to add these or can I sub them for say brandy which I'm buying for the christmas cake? Any alternate recipes?
Or would I be best off canning the making idea and just buying one?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/ideas

Delia! :rolleyes: Never one for sparing on the ingredients!!! I usually use a can or bottle of Guinness - but on poor years I have made my DH's mums pud with no booze at all, just set fire to it on the day with brandy or whiskey...

If you feel like pushing the boat out I can highly recommend a bottle of Wychwood breweries "Black Witch" stout which the usually have in our biggest Sainsbury by this time of year! Then you can tell them it's Evilwitches, Black witch YULE Pudding! :rotfl:

Regards

Kate

gooismeid

Delia's christmas pud recipe is infinitely adaptable but I agree that you can't get away with leaving out the stout/guinness/black beer. We usually just bung in similar quantities of whichever alcohol we have lying around - rum, southern comfort, brandy, whisky. And we never put the mixed peel in, nobody in our house likes it so we substitute chopped apricots and cherries. One year we memorably added "membrillo" - that solid kind of quince jelly you get from Spain - instead of mixed peel. That was gorgeous.

Omertron

Ok, this is not particularily old style, but it is money saving if you consider the price of the alcohol and other ingredients for a xmas pud.

We've got out xmas puddings from M. Rays' bakery in Prescot (they do deliver)
for £10 (+ P&P) you get a 1.35Kg pudding which will feed 10-12 people. Their mince pies are also to die for... making me :drool: just thinking about them!

kethry

I've made my own xmas puds for years now - in fact, i usually end up making about 5 each year for various people (mom, best friend, best friend's mom, mom's neighbour.. the list seems to grow each year LOL)... but unlike anyone else who's posted, i don't use the Delia one. Instead i use a recipe called "Rich and Boozy Christmas Pudding" from a book published by Hamlyn, "Complete Christmas Book" by Carol Hupping, and it was published in 1991, so i have no idea if its even still around. [just done a search on amazon and although there's a book of a similar title by the same person, no sign of this one, so i'm assuming its out of print or something.]

anyway, this recipe uses currants, raisins, sultanas, orange, lemon, breadcrumbs, almonds, nutmeg, cinnamon, dark brown sugar, eggs, brandy port, rum, and butter. It takes 7 hours to cook if you steam it the normal way but 3 hours in a pressure cooker - and best of all, its perfectly microwaveable.

Are we allowed to copy recipes here from books if they're no longer in print? I did check the copyright section but that seems to apply more for websites rather than books.

If i'm allowed to post it here i will do, as i've got it typed up already - sent it to a few people over the years.. LOL...

keth
xx