Steam Oven Christmas Pudding with Fig, Apricot and Orange
This rich pudding has all the flavors of Christmas with a modern twist thanks to the addition of dried figs, glace apricots and oranges. It'll be the star of your dessert table.
Servings: 10
Calories: 463kcal
Ingredients
- 4.4 oz soft dried figs the ready-to-eat ones, chopped
- 5.3 oz glace apricots candied apricots, chopped
- 4.4 oz pitted soft prunes chopped
- 4.4 oz sultanas
- 4.4 oz dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup brandy Cointreau or dry sherry
- 2 oranges zested and juiced
- 1 cup fresh white breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour plain flour
- 2 tsp mixed spice
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 cup macadamia nuts raw and unsalted, chopped
- 1 cup dark brown sugar firmly packed
- 3.5 oz unsalted butter softened
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
Instructions
- Put the dried fruit in a large bowl with the alcohol, orange zest and juice. Set aside overnight to macerate.
- Grease a 1.2 litre ceramic pudding bowl (see notes) and line the base with a small circle of silicone baking paper.
- Add all the remaining ingredients to the bowl of soaked fruit and stir until well combined. Firmly pack the mixture into the pudding bowl, then fold a pleat into a piece of silicone baking paper and use this to cover the bowl (the pleat gives room for the pudding to expand in the oven). Follow the baking paper with a piece of pleated foil. If you want to be traditional, you can tie a length of kitchen twine around the lip of the bowl, but tightly scrunching the foil will be enough.
- Put the covered pudding into your steam oven and set the oven to 212⁰F/100⁰C (steam only, humidity 100%). Cook for 6 hours – if your oven is not plumbed you’ll very likely need to top up the water tank at least once during this time (my tank lasts for over 3 hours if I don’t open the oven at all so I only have to do this once).
- When the pudding is cooked, let it cool to warm, then transfer to the fridge, still covered, and store for up to 4 weeks (any longer than this and I’d recommend putting it in the freezer, it minimises potential odours/flavour contamination from other things in your fridge).
- When you’re ready to serve the pudding, repeat the steaming process for 1 ½ hours to heat it through, then turn out and serve in wedges topped with ice cream and/or custard.
Notes
- This recipe makes 1 large pudding (my basin is 1.2l but a 1.5l basin is also just fine to use), enough to easily serve 8-10.
- If you prefer individual puddings you can cook this (or any other Christmas pudding) in half-cup dariole moulds. They’ll take 1 ½ hours to cook and about half an hour to reheat in the steam oven.
- I like to serve Christmas pudding with vanilla ice cream but a good custard is welcome too. I would never be so irresponsible as to recommend you go totally overboard and do both, because that would just be asking for trouble. Ahem.
- I have simply specified ‘chopped’ for most of the fruits, by which I really mean chopped into approximately the size of a sultana. And I haven’t given cup measurements for the dried fruit but the rough equivalent once chopped is a scant cup for everything except the apricots, which are a full cup.
Nutrition
Calories: 463kcal | Carbohydrates: 81g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 54mg | Sodium: 69mg | Potassium: 581mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 59g | Vitamin A: 993IU | Vitamin C: 15mg | Calcium: 97mg | Iron: 2mg