Stir-up Sunday with a special twist: Chocolate Cherry Christmas Pudding

Growing up in the USA, Christmas pudding was not a common holiday tradition for most people. In our family, having a Christmas pudding was a special treat, as it would have to be specially ordered or made at home, which often led to a forgotten pudding that had to be eaten later in the year (did someone say Easter pudding?). Moving to London was a complete change when it came to including Christmas pudding in our Christmas celebrations. After all, the shops are filled with so many options for enjoying the traditional treat. However, nothing is quite like making your own Hipster friendly Chocolate Cherry Christmas pudding.

So what is a Christmas pudding after all?

A traditional Christmas pudding is a steamed pudding consisting of suet, dried fruit, and alcohol. The tradition of having a pudding in some form at Christmas dates back to the 14th Century, and the form in which we recognise it today comes from around the 1650’s and more prevalently from 1714 when the Christmas pudding was re-established as part of the holiday, after a short hiatus under the puritans.

Brief history of stir up Sunday

Having grown up knowing Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, or more likely the Muppet take on the classic tale, most Americans know the tradition of including a sprig of holly and lighting the pudding prior to serving. However, one tradition associated with the Christmas pudding that is often lost in the USA is Stir-up Sunday. The last Sunday before Advent (the church version, not the chocolate calendar version) has historically been the day marked for making the Christmas pudding. The Victorians turned this day into a family event in which each member takes a turn stirring the pudding while making a wish. For more on the traditions surrounding the British Christmas pudding we recommend heading over to Historic UK.

Hipster twist on a tradition

Although we generally like the traditional Christmas pudding here in the hipster house, it can feel a bit heavy, old fashioned, and tends to over do it on the raisins. We were eager to make our own version with a more modern twist. There are so many different versions of puddings out there but none of them felt completely us, and really when it comes to holiday traditions, the key is making them feel personal and drawing a connection that will last from year to year.

When selecting the ingredients for our Chocolate Cherry Christmas pudding, we thought about what flavours evoked happy thoughts, memories of the holidays, and felt strongly like winter and family to us. The first was obviously chocolate, dark chocolate to be specific. Dark chocolate mixes well with some of our favourite winter fruits such as dried dark cherries, figs, red currant, and orange peels. Although some of our family prefers the alcohol free versions of Christmas pudding, the adult flavour provided by a bit of booze was important to making our own recipe. To marry with the dark chocolate and rich fruits, it felt most fitting to include a treacly rum and a luxurious amaretto. All of this mixed with a classic selection of holiday spices makes for a delicious, decadent, and fun take on Christmas pudding that we hope you and your household will love just as much as ours.

Chocolate Cherry Christmas Pudding

Baker beware, this is not a recipe for the faint of heart. After all, making a steamed pudding is time consuming. However, we can confirm that the results are worth the effort. There is just something gratifying about embracing this centuries old tradition and it is a great way to kick off the holiday season. So pour some mulled wine, turn up the carols, and let’s get cooking.

You will need the following ingredients:

• 450g (about 3 cups) Dried fruit mix of dark cherries, figs, and currants (the ratio is up to your taste, we like to go heavier on the cherries)

• 120ml (1/2 cup) Dark Rum

• 60ml (1/4 cup) Amaretto

• 150g (1 1/3 cups) Butter or suet (depending on preference, suet is more traditional but is not to everyone’s taste)

• Small amount of butter for greasing pudding bowl

• Zest of 1 orange

• 1 Ripe pear

• 2 Eggs

• 75g (1/2 cup) Flour

• 25g (1/4 cup) Cocoa powder

• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

• 1/4 tsp Cloves, ground

• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg

• 1/2 tsp Allspice

• 1/4 tsp Ginger, ground

• 1 tsp Baking powder

• 200g (1 cup) Brown sugar

• 30ml (2 tbsp) Treacle

• 2 Heaping tbsp of candied orange peel

• 125g (1 rounded cup) Breadcrumbs

And the following equipment:

• Measuring cups (optional)

• Scale (optional)

• Measuring spoons

• Knife

• Cutting board

• Grater (optional)

• Mixing bowl

• Mixing spoon

• Small bowl (for beating eggs)

• Small whisk or fork

• Rubber spatula

• Pudding bowl (ceramic or heat safe bowl)

• Pudding bowl cover or cheesecloth

• Baking paper

• Foil

• Baking twine

• Pot that can fit pudding bowl comfortably

What you will need on Christmas Day:

• Brandy

• Metal ladle

• Matches or lighter

Ok, now lets get cooking!

• Cut up the dried figs into smaller bits to better match the cherries and currants. Cut up cherries if needed. 

• In a large mixing bowl, mix together 450g (3 cups) of dried cherries, figs, and currants. Use the ratio of these three that you prefer, we like to go heavier on the cherries and figs and fill out the remaining amount with currants.

• Pour ½ cup of dark rum and ¼ cup of amaretto over dried fruit mixture

• Cover bowl and allow fruit to steep overnight (you can steep the fruit for up to a week)

• After allowing fruit to steep, continue with the rest of the recipe

• Zest 1 orange

• Cut 1 ripe pear into bite size chunks. You can remove the skin if you prefer, the skin will break down when cooking, however, so this is not necessary.

• Grate or finely chop 150g (1 ⅓ cups) butter or suet. You are looking for very small pieces to get a good distribution throughout the mixture.

• Add orange zest, chopped pear, and butter or suet into steeped fruit mixture and combine

• With a small whisk or fork, beat the eggs and add the beaten eggs to the mixture

• Mix in ½ cup of flour, ¼ cup of cocoa powder, 1 tsp of baking powder, and all the spices (½ tsp cinnamon, ¼ tsp cloves, ¼ tsp nutmeg, ½ tsp allspice, ¼ tsp ginger)

• Add the 1 cup of brown sugar and 2 tbsp of treacle to the mixture (hip tip: lightly grease the measuring spoon before using it to measure out the treacle, this will prevent the treacle from sticking to the spoon and help get a cleaner and more accurate measurement)

• Mix in the remaining ingredients – 2 tbsp of candied peel and 1 cup of breadcrumbs

• Grease the pudding bowl and cut out a circle of baking paper to fit the top of the bowl. (hip tip: fold the paper into 8ths and measure the point from the centre of the bowl to the edge. Trim the paper and unfold. This should give you an accurate circle)

• Transfer your mixture to the greased pudding bowl, use the rubber spatula to make sure you do not miss any of the delicious mixture

• Press the pudding mixture down tightly and cover with baking paper. 

• Measure out foil to fit the top of the pudding bowl with room to spare. Fold a pleat into the foil to allow for steam expansion while cooking.

• Secure the foil in place with the baking twine and tie a handle to help lift and lower pudding in and out of the pot. It is important to make sure that your foil is watertight so that you do not accidentally flood your pudding while cooking it.

• Place pudding bowl into a cooking pot or oven safe pot, boil enough water to reach about half way up your pudding bowl. You can also use a steamer if you have one. 

• Steam your pudding either on the stove or in the oven for 5 hours, checking the water periodically to maintain the level and prevent your pudding from boiling dry. 

• Carefully remove the pudding and allow it to cool. 

• Remove the foil and replace with pudding bowl cover or cheese cloth. 

• Set your pudding in a safe location and wait for Christmas day (we know this is difficult).

On Christmas Day

• Rewrap the pudding with a foil lid and tie off to secure. 

• Steam pudding for another 3 hours as above.

• Carefully remove from the steamer, remove the foil (be careful not to burn yourself on the steam), and peel off the baking paper.

• Loosen the pudding slightly with a knife and carefully turn your pudding out onto a serving plate.

Now for the fun part!

• In a metal ladle pour a decent amount of brandy.

• Pour the brandy evenly over the pudding and quickly light the area pudding (hip tip: the brandy may be easier to light if it is slightly warmed. You can do this over a candle while it is in the ladle)

If you allow the brandy to soak into the pudding too much, it will be difficult to light so make sure you are ready. Having a candle nearby to light a match is sometimes handy. Also, lighting your pudding by candlelight rather than the bright lights of your kitchen or dining area will give a more impressive effect when lighting your very hipster Chocolate Cherry Christmas pudding.

After you have blown out your pudding, serve it up with some clotted cream, brandy cream, or whipped cream, and enjoy!

Looking for more holiday baking ideas? Why not try our Bourbon Pecan Pie or one of our favourite Christmas staples, Finnish Pulla.