Puddings and Poppies

I will be baking my Christmas cake soon but I don’t need to make puddings or mincemeat this year. I made them last year and they keep perfectly. Mincemeat actually improves with keeping. I think the booze helps!

My puddings don’t taste like bought ones which seem to have a lot of citric acid to give them that tang. These are lighter in colour, texture and taste but are still full of lovely Christmas flavours. I make individual sized puddings which freeze well and take only one minute to reheat in the microwave straight from the freezer.

Here is my recipe. You will need a large roasting tin, individual pudding tins and foil. This quantity makes about 10 puddings. You can of course halve the recipe but I feel it’s not worth putting the oven on unless you make it worthwhile. If you’re not strict about keeping to tradition you can pop one in the microwave when you fancy a pudding later in the new year.

200g self-raising Flour 2 teaspoons of spice (mixed spice, or I use a mixture of ground ginger, cinnamon and cloves) pinch of Salt 150g Breadcrumbs 100g chopped Pecans 2 cooking or sharp Apples, chopped small or grated 300g Raisins 300g Sultanas 80g mixture of chopped Stem Ginger, grated orange and lemon rind and candied peel 4 large Eggs juice of 2 Lemons 2 tablespoons Black Treacle 350g of Dark Sugar 150g Butter 4 tablespoons Rum or Brandy or a mix of the two.

Mix flour, spice and salt. Add crumbs, nuts, chopped apple, dried fruit and chopped ginger mixture. Separately mix eggs and lemon juice, add treacle. Gently melt butter and sugar together. Add all these liquid ingredients, including rum or brandy, to the flour mixture. Beat well then stand for at least 30 minutes. Stir again.

Grease individual pudding tins and fill each almost to the top. Heat the oven to 190C/170 fan oven. Cover the tops of the tins with foil and stand them in a large roasting tin. Boil a full kettle of water and pour the water around the tins to about a third of the way up the tins. Cover all with a large piece of foil over the top of the roasting tin.

Open the oven door, then very carefully carry the tin and place on the oven shelf. (You don’t want scalding water slopping around!) Cook for 2 hours.

Allow to cool before removing foil and tins. Slide a knife around the edge of each pudding and tip out. Freeze really well.

Remove from freezer and reheat each one for 1 minute in the microwave.

I serve the puddings with rum sauce. I make a white sauce by heating milk to boiling then stirring in a little cornflour mixed with a drop of milk and adding sugar. When it’s thickened I stir in a dash of rum. Really delicious and so much more refreshing than brandy butter. Everyone has their favourite, of course, so it’s a matter of personal taste.

Planted most of the bulbs today. Crown Imperials, Leucojum, mixed dwarf Narcissi and Snowdrops. Some more to do but the knees were complaining. A lovely sunny day with a beautiful sky and so welcome after all that rain.

The acers are rapidly losing their leaves now but they look wonderful on the ground. Other leaves are mingling. Hawthorn, Beech and Crab Apple are lying damply where they fell in the wind and rain. Most of the plants are going to sleep for the winter and the colour is fading fast in the garden. But I have lots of lovely photos to remind me of summer’s glorious show.

Which brings me to poppies. Remembrance Day is almost here so poppies are everywhere. I am a member of the SAA which is an art club for all artists whether amateur (like me) or professional. In 2018, to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War, members were invited to contribute a small painting of a poppy. These were then collated in an exhibition at SAA headquarters. I later had the image transferred to a set of place mats. Here is my painting.

Let’s never forget!

Be with you again soon. I shall be baking my Christmas cake in the next week or so and will share my recipe with you. In the meantime, enjoy your Christmas preparations even though things may be different this year.