Stir Up Sunday is here again. It always amazes me how fast the year disappears and here we are, once again, starting our Christmas preparations. In the Christian calendar Stir Up Sunday falls on the last Sunday before Advent and around five weeks before Christmas. It derives it’s name from the first line of the “collect” or prayer of the day, nowadays often said after communion, from the Book Of Common Prayer of 1549: “Stir up, we beseech thee”. Since Victorian times Stir Up Sunday is traditionally the the day families get together after church to make their Christmas puddings so they could be matured until Christmas Day. Every year I try to uphold some of our Christmas traditions, even when it’s only Paul and I, and the making of the Christmas pudding is one I particularly enjoy; from the aroma of the alcohol infused fruit mixed with festive spices to the ritual “licking of the bowl”. As it is a Sunday several grandchildren share our day which means they can join in with the mixing and making of wishes; if they can drag themselves away from their Xboxes and iPads for five minutes!
This year I started preparing the day before by soaking my dried fruit in a good glug of Lustau Pedro Ximénez San Emilio sherry (sorry Amanda, it had to be done). This stuff is like drinking liquid Christmas pudding so I thought I’d give it a go instead of the usual rum or brandy. The recipe I found uses Tia Maria and I have seen one which uses Cointreau to give the pudding an orangey tang. Many recipes suggest soaking the fruit for up to a week but I can never think that far ahead. This Sunday morning I got up early, well before my usual time of 11.30, and prepared the fruit for my Christmas cake and whilst it was cooling down I set about mixing up the pudding. Although I like tradition I am not constrained by it and last year I discovered that instead of steaming my pudding on the stove top; with all the added faff of making sure I didn’t ruin yet another pan as it boiled dry; I could just bung it in my Crockpot and let it steam away whilst I got on with making the cake. I also found a recipe which, although a little less traditional, has less of the ingredients Paul shouldn’t have but tastes every bit as good as any other pudding I’ve tried. Since everyone, including several children, thoroughly enjoyed it last year I decided to do the same recipe this year. The added benefit of using the Crockpot is that come the big day I don’t have to commandeer one of the gas rings or the microwave just when they are needed for cooking up our Christmas feast. I just pop the pudding back in the Crockpot in the morning and forget about it. 3-4 hours is enough but if we get delayed by present unwrapping or unexpected visitors I can just set the Crockpot to the keep warm feature and it will just sit there gently steaming away until we’re ready.
Ingredients
- 300g mixed dried fruit
- 80ml brandy/rum/tia maria
- 75g soft butter – you can use Stork if you prefer
- 75g soft dark brown sugar
- 50g plain flour
- ½tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼tsp ground cloves
- ½tsp baking powder
- 60g breadcrumbs
- 1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk, beaten
- 1 small apple coarsely grated
- 1tbsp golden syrup
Method
- Soak the mixed dried fruits in your choice of alcohol, preferably overnight.
- Grease a ½ pint pudding basin.
- In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and sugar with an electric hand whisk until they are creamy.
- Add the eggs and syrup and continue to whisk until combined.
- Sift the flour, spices and baking powder into the bowl, mixing well with a wooden spoon.
- Mix in the breadcrumbs.
- Add the grated apple to the dried fruit and add to the the mix along with any residual alcohol and mix until well combined.
- Pour into the pudding basin, place a circle of greased grease proof paper onto the pudding mix and cover with a square of foil – remember to put a pleat in the foil – and secure with string just below the rim of the basin. Make the string long enough to make a handle over the top of the basin, this will make lifting it out of the slow cooker easier.
- Place the basin into the slow cooker. Fill the pot with boiling water to just under the rim of the basin. Put the lid on and cook on low for around 8 hours.
- When the pudding is cooked remove it from the slow cooker and allow to cool. Once cooled replace the grease proof paper and foil, securing with string. You can now store your pudding somewhere cool and dark until Christmas Day.
To Pressure Cook:
- Follow the recipe to number 9.
- Add 1500mls water to the pot.
- Place the pudding basin on the low rack.
- Close the lid select PRESSURE and cook on Hi for 70 minutes followed by Natural Release.
- Remove pudding from the pot and continue from number 10.
On the day reheat the pudding by steaming it in the slow cooker for 3-4 hours, using the same method you used to cook it or pressure cook on Hi for 5 minutes followed by Natural Release.