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by Mary Berry

Mary Berry's Christmas pudding recipe is loaded with fruit, peel and, of course, brandy. With an extra dollop of brandy butter on the side, this pudding will win over the harshest critics.

Equipment and preparation: You will need a 1.4 litre/2½ pint pudding basin

Desserts

Preparation

The Christmas pudding we recognise today is a Victorian dish made from suet, dried fruit, candied peel, breadcrumbs, spices, egg and grated carrots and apples. The Victorians shaped their puddings into a spherical shape and boiled them in a muslin cloth. ‘Stir up Sunday’ (the last Sunday before Advent) has become associated with the start of the pudding-making process, in order to allow it least a month to mature before being consumed on Christmas Day. At Christmas, the pudding is doused in brandy and set alight.