members recipes

I used Minerva\'s basic steamed pudding recipe as a base and added some typical Panettone flavourings. I think it makes a great alternative to traditional Christmas pudding. It\'s a lot lighter but still has all those lovely Christmasy flavours :)

Ingredients
Fills one 600ml pudding basin

75g butter
2 eggs
100g caster sugar
100g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
A small pinch of powdered saffron (soak in 1 tbsp of warm milk)
85g raisins
25g candied orange peel, finely chopped
Finely grated zest of 1 large orange
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 heaped tsp of real Bourbon Vanilla sugar

Method
1. Cream together the butter, caster sugar and vanilla sugar till pale and fluffy.
2. Add one of the eggs and beat the mixture well before adding the next egg.
3. Sieve the flour and baking powder over the creamed mixture then fold in gently with a spoon or spatula.
4. Add the raisins, zests, candied orange peel and the saffron milk and stir through the mixture.
5. Grease a 600ml pudding basin with a little bit of butter then pour in the mixture. The basin should be no more than 2/3\'s full.
6. Cover the pudding with greaseproof paper, then cover with a small cloth or serviette, using some kitchen string to secure the cloth.
7. Place in a steamer and steam for approx. 1.5 hours. If you don\'t have a steamer use a large saucepan/casserole (with lid) and fill with 2 inches of water. Place the pudding on an upturned saucer or trivet. If you don\'t have either, you can also place the pudding basin on a ring of crumpled up aluminium foil. Just make sure that the basin isn\'t touching the bottom of the pan.
Check the water every now and then to make sure it isn\'t drying out, adding a little bit more boiling water to the pan if necessary.
8. Serve with a sauce of your choice eg. vanilla custard, rum sauce or even whipped cream flavoured with some lemon/orange zest would work well this pudding.