Christmas pudding questions

zippychick

Ill merge with our christmas pud thread later

Zip

zippychick

ive merged this with christmas pudding qs. This thread may also help

Zip

daisiegg

Thank you in advance for anyone who can help!

I want to make Christmas pudding for the first time this year. I have various allergies and this year I can't seem to find a pudding that caters for them all.

I have a couple of questions:

Firstly, all the recipes I can find make very large puddings. If I scale a recipe down to make a couple of small puddings instead (as I have a couple of occasions over the period when I will want to eat Christmas pud!) will it still take the same amount of time to cook as the recipe says, or will a smaller pudding take less time?

Secondly, the recipes all tell you to reheat the pudding by steaming on the day. For various reasons I won't be able to do this. Do you think it will reheat in the microwave? I know you can buy small microwaveable Christmas puddings.

Thanks in advance anyone!

floss2

Try Delia's Complete Cookery Course for timings, I always make her puddings & seem to remember a timing chart in her recipe.

And yes you can reheat in a microwave, but I'm not sure how long for! I have reheated one of my h/m puds a few years ago, I tend to reheat in a steamer now as I have the hob space.

jackyann

You can make the puddings any size you want - my mother used to make them from enormous down to teacup size - literally she used to make some in old teacups to give as small gifts (still a nice idea!)
I guess you can reduce the cooking time a bit, but xmas pud is very forgiving!

My heating up tip on the day is to use the slow cooker. When preparing breakfast, I put it in a corner, put the pud in & fill up to 2/3 with boiling water, set to auto and let it steam away - I think 5 hours minimum, but it can be left for much, much longer.

daisiegg

floss2 wrote: »

Try Delia's Complete Cookery Course for timings, I always make her puddings & seem to remember a timing chart in her recipe.

And yes you can reheat in a microwave, but I'm not sure how long for! I have reheated one of my h/m puds a few years ago, I tend to reheat in a steamer now as I have the hob space.

Thanks. I have used her scaling charts for Christmas cake but can't find one for Christmas pudding - will have to keep searching.

daisiegg

jackyann wrote: »

You can make the puddings any size you want - my mother used to make them from enormous down to teacup size - literally she used to make some in old teacups to give as small gifts (still a nice idea!)
I guess you can reduce the cooking time a bit, but xmas pud is very forgiving!

My heating up tip on the day is to use the slow cooker. When preparing breakfast, I put it in a corner, put the pud in & fill up to 2/3 with boiling water, set to auto and let it steam away - I think 5 hours minimum, but it can be left for much, much longer.

Thank you the reason I can't reheat on the day in any way other than microwave is I won't be at home, but thanks for the idea (I also don't own a slow cooker - hate the things!)

LE3

Christmas puds microwave just fine, we do it every year! Either a small piece or a whole one
Best doing it for a bit longer on a lower power (eg 50%) rather than full whack as the fruit can burn if you aren't careful ....
LE3

Seakay

Good Housekeeping instructions for microwaving Christmas pudding n the day:

To reheat your pudding in the microwave

Remove the top layer of foil, the clingfilm and pleated lid. Re-cover top of the basin with a baking parchment lid as before. Reheat at medium power (based on an 8OOW microwave) for 4min. Allow to stand for 1min, then cook again for 4min at the same temperature. Leave to stand for 1min, then remove lid, invert pudding on to a plate and peel off baking parchment disc. Serve.

Seakay

Here's a recipe for small puddings which give more of an idea about cooking times:

http://www.allaboutyou.com/food/recipefinder/mini-christmas-puddings-recipe-9214