Our Food Director Sarah is a food obsessive, and spends most of her time scoping out the latest food trends, experimenting in her own kitchen, or making her family wait to eat while she photographs every dinner she makes for the 'gram! A complete Middle Eastern food junkie, she is never far from a good shawarma marinade, a pinch of Aleppo chilli or a sprig of dill
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Sarah Akhurst
Our Food Director Sarah is a food obsessive, and spends most of her time scoping out the latest food trends, experimenting in her own kitchen, or making her family wait to eat while she photographs every dinner she makes for the 'gram! A complete Middle Eastern food junkie, she is never far from a good shawarma marinade, a pinch of Aleppo chilli or a sprig of dill
See more of Sarah Akhurst ’s recipes
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Ingredients
250g dried apricots, roughly chopped
200g golden sultanas (or jumbo raisins and cranberries mix)
75ml Grand Marnier, plus 3 tbsp extra to flame
100g soft salted butter, plus extra to grease
75g light brown sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
zest and juice of 3 clementines (easy peelers)
2 large eggs
125g self-raising flour
75g brioche, whizzed into crumbs
2 tsp ground mixed spice
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The pudding can be made up to a month ahead and stored in a cool dark place, or can be frozen for up to 1 year.
Put the apricots and sultanas in a bowl with the Grand Marnier and leave to steep for an hour. Generously butter a 1.5 litre pudding basin and cut a small disc of baking paper for the base.
Cream the butter, sugar and syrup with the clementine zest. Add the eggs, beating well after each addition, then fold through the flour, brioche crumbs and mixed spice. Finally, stir through the citrus juice and steeped fruit and transfer to the prepared basin.
To cook, put a trivet at the bottom of a deep saucepan – you can use a jam jar lid for this if you don’t have a trivet. Make a handle from a long piece of folded foil and place over the trivet, with the ends of the strip hanging over the edge of the pan.
Cut a large square of baking paper, and butter one side. Cut an equal-sized piece of foil and place the baking paper on top, buttered side up. Fold a pleat in the middle, securing the two pieces together, then place over the pudding basin, with the buttered side of the baking paper facing down. Fold over the edge of the basin and secure with string.
Sit the basin on the trivet, making sure that the foil handle is under the bowl. Pour in boiling water so that it reaches halfway up the pudding basin. Cover the pan and leave to simmer for 3 hours. Keep a check on the water and top up as necessary to keep the level roughly the same throughout the cooking time.
To serve straight away, lift the pudding basin out of the pan, using the foil handle. Remove the foil and paper lid and place a serving plate on top of the bowl. Invert the pudding and turn out. Warm the extra Grand Marnier in a small pan, take it immediately to the table, pour it over the pudding and light with a long match. Leave the flames to extinguish themselves before serving.
To store the pudding, allow it to cool completely before removing the foil lid. Wrap the entire pudding basin in foil and store in a cool place until ready to use.
To reheat, cover with a new buttered paper and foil lid as above, and cook in the same way for around an hour to heat through. Follow the instructions in step 6 for serving.
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Superstitions say that Christmas pudding must be prepared with 13 ingredients, which are said to represent Jesus and his twelve disciples. It is also said that the mixture should be stirred in turn from east to west, by each family member, to honour the disciples' journey.
It was common practice to include small silver coins in the pudding mixture, which could be kept by the person whose serving included them. The usual choice was a silver threepence or a sixpence.
Adding silver coins into plum pudding is a fun Christmas tradition. The notion being that whoever finds the coin will have good luck. The tradition may date as far back as early as the 1300s when several small items like dried peas and chicken wishbones were added to the pudding mixture.
Christmas Pudding (also known as plum pudding or figgy pudding) is a dish as famous as it is misunderstood. In America, Christmas Pudding (also known as plum pudding or figgy pudding) is a dish as famous as it is misunderstood.
It wasn't until the mid-seventeenth century that this pudding became associated with Christmas which led to it being banned in 1647 by Oliver Cromwell who believed that it and other festive traditions led to drunken revelry instead of sombre reflection.
The traditional Christmas pudding is therefore by no means a low fat product. Further, the 14% fat from the suet is pure saturated fat, which has been recognized as a contributor to the suffering of high blood pressure and coronary heart disease. The traditional recipe provided also contains a high sugar content.
As mentioned above, most modern coins contain nickel and/or brass, which can react with the ingredients in the pudding. For those who want to honour this age-old tradition, we recommend using specially-made coin tokens that are safe for use.
The flaming brandy is said to represent the passion of Christ. Christmas puddings were traditionally boiled in a “pudding cloth”, although today are usually steamed in a bowl. Presented on the table with a sprig of holly, they are then doused in brandy and set alight.
Traditional British Christmas pudding is a make-ahead, steamed, fruit filled dessert, also known as plum pudding, which is set alight when served. It is beautiful culmination of many British Christmas dinners.
Finding a Christmas coin in your slice of pudding is believed to bring good luck and especially wealth in the coming year. This lovely tradition may date back as early as the 1300s when a dried pea or sometimes a small silver ring or crown was baked into a Twelfth Night Cake.
While NGC uses the designation “Cheerios Promotion” for the Lincoln cent, and PCGS labels them as a Minor Variety, most of the coins are nothing more than ordinary 2000-dated Philadelphia cents. In fact, the only way to differentiate them is the promotional packaging.
There are a number of customs and superstitions surrounding Christmas puddings. They should be made with 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and the 12 Disciples.
We're pleased to reveal that Waitrose is the overall winner of our 2023 Christmas taste test, scooping the top spot in six categories. These include whole turkey, flavoured salmon, roast potatoes, prosecco, meat centrepieces and Christmas cake.
“Figgy pudding is a specific type of Christmas or plum pudding that contains figs as a primary ingredient along with other dried fruits,” Heron says. “However, the name 'figgy pudding' doesn't always mean it exclusively contains figs. It could contain a variety of dried fruits in addition to or alongside figs.
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Prep time: 15 mins
