Winter with Zetetick: all our seasonal recipes
Stir-up Sunday is the Sunday before Advent, traditionally a day to mix the Christmas pudding. This steamed pudding serves 4–6 and gives everyone at home a chance to take a turn with the spoon.
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Serves 4–6 · Prepare 30–45 minutes, plus overnight soaking · Steam 4 hours, then reheat 2–3 hours
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A pudding-making tradition
The name comes from the opening words of the Book of Common Prayer collect for the Sunday before Advent: “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people”. Families have made their own customs around mixing the pudding and making a wish.
Keep coins and real holly out of the pudding: they can create choking or poisoning hazards. Use edible decorations instead.
This steamed pudding recipe comes from Homes & Gardens’ Stir-up Sunday recipe. For Jonathan’s family version, see our pressure-cooker Christmas pudding.
Ingredients
- 75g raisins
- 75g sultanas
- 50g dried figs, chopped
- 25g mixed citrus peel
- 20g glacé cherries, quartered
- 10g stem ginger in syrup, chopped
- 80ml sherry or a similar sweet wine
- 60g light muscovado sugar
- 35g self-raising flour
- 35g fresh breadcrumbs
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- A pinch of fine sea salt
- 75g suet or grated butter
- 15g pecans, toasted and roughly chopped
- 1 medium egg
- Juice of ½ orange
- 50ml stout
- Butter for greasing
Method
- The night before, mix the dried fruit with the sherry in a bowl. Cover and leave to soak.
- Mix the sugar, flour, breadcrumbs, mixed spice and salt in a large bowl, breaking up any lumps of sugar. Stir in the suet and pecans.
- Add the egg and mix, then add the orange juice, stout, soaked fruit and any sherry left in the bowl. Stir thoroughly.
- Grease a 14cm heatproof pudding basin and spoon in the mixture. Put a disc of baking parchment on the surface.
- Cover with a double layer of parchment and foil, making a pleat for expansion. Tie securely around the rim with string and make a string handle.
- Stand the basin on a trivet or upturned heatproof plate in a large pan. Add water halfway up the basin, cover and steam gently for 4 hours. Check regularly and top up with boiling water to prevent it boiling dry. Check the centre is cooked through, reaching 70°C for 2 minutes or 75°C for 30 seconds.
- Cool promptly, replace damp coverings with dry parchment and foil, and refrigerate within 1–2 hours. Use within 48 hours, or freeze for longer keeping rather than relying on an unspecified cool cupboard.
- Defrost in the fridge if frozen and use within 24 hours of fully defrosting. To serve, steam again for 2–3 hours until steaming hot throughout. Reheat only once, turn out carefully and serve with your chosen accompaniment.
Making it ahead
If making the pudding weeks before Christmas, freeze it after cooling. Defrost in the fridge before reheating. Adding alcohol does not remove the need for safe storage. The FSA’s chilling advice explains cooling, refrigeration and freezing.
Check the labels for wheat, egg, milk, nuts and the cereals in stout. Suet and dried fruit products can contain other allergens. Find more Christmas recipes in Winter with Zetetick.
