Vegan Christmas Pudding Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is a good substitute for suet in Christmas pudding? ›

Outside the UK suet can be difficult to find and vegetable shortening is the best alternative. The same weight should be used - 150g and for the US it is 14 tablespoons. As shortening is quite soft it is best to freeze it overnight before grating.

However, if it is difficult then you can use alternatives. A sweet marsala or Madeira wine are good alternatives but if you only have a bottle of rum, whisky or brandy on hand then one of these could also be used.

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.

However, it was the Victorians who fine tuned the recipe into the Christmas pudding many of us enjoy today. A Christmas pudding should have 13 ingredients – that represent Jesus and the 12 disciples.

Vegetable shortening: Vegetable shortening has a mild flavor like suet and hardens in the refrigerator, making it simple to shred and add to foods that call for shredded suet. Shortening consists of sunflower oil, palm oil, and wheat flour, which create a similar, crumbly texture to suet.

If you can't find suet then we have found that grated vegetable shortening (such as Trex, Crisco or Copha) is a good substitute.

Christmas pudding is traditionally soaked with alcohol, preferably brandy, for flavour maturation. However, many people prefer rum and whisky spirit with high alcohol content.

Conclusion: Christmas puddings contain ethanol that does not all evaporate during the cooking process. However, the rise in BAC after ingestion of a typical slice of Christmas pudding was negligible and unlikely to affect work performance or safety or impair a health care worker's ability to make complex decisions.

Any pudding using fresh fruit for moisture will go off more quickly, whereas a Christmas pudding soaked in booze with high sugar and dried fruit content will last much longer. Some Christmas puddings, made with dried fruit in the traditional way, are fine to be eaten as much as two years after they were made.

It is key that every member of the family gives the pudding mixture a stir and makes a wish at the same time. Traditionally, a silver sixpence was stirred in to bring whoever found the coin on Christmas Day wealth and good luck in the year to come.

What is the old name for Christmas pudding? ›

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.

A silver sixpence was placed into the pudding mix and every member of the household gave the mix a stir. Whoever found the sixpence in their own piece of the pudding on Christmas Day would see it as a sign that they would enjoy wealth and good luck in the year to come.

If you're old enough you will remember Christmas puddings containing coins that were said to bring the finder good luck. Before coins, charms were put inside Christmas puddings including a silver coin for wealth, a wishbone for luck, a thimble for thrift, a ring for marriage and an anchor for safe harbour.

Often referred to as 'plum pudding', the recipe for Christmas pud has in fact never called for plums at all. The word "plum" in fact refers to dried fruit of any variety; whether dates, prunes, sultanas or currants. Why is mincemeat called mincemeat?

After the first 5 hours of steaming the puddings may not look that dark but do not worry as the colour deepens on the second steaming.

They note suet is used primarily in steamed puddings because it has a higher melting point than butter. They say if you try to substitute butter for suet, during cooking that butter will melt before the pudding has a chance to set.

If you or someone in your family is a vegetarian and doesn't want to eat suet, look for a recipe that uses butter or margarine instead, such as this recipe for individual Christmas puddings.

Suet is the essential fat in many British puddings, both sweet and savoury, as well as stuffings and dumplings, mincemeat at Christmastime and – of – course suet pastry. It makes some of my most favourite British foods. It's role is to enrich and lubricate mixtures, producing a good crust in steamed suet puddings.

As a result, suet fat is less likely to melt into the flour when making the pastry. When the pudding is cooked, the suet melts after the pastry has had a chance to set, leaving behind holes. This structure allows the pastry to better stand up to wet fillings and gives a lighter, fluffier texture.