Lotte Duncan's Christmas pudding

Method

1. Lightly grease a 1.6 litre pudding basin and line the base with non-stick baking parchment.

2. Put the raisins, cherries and sultanas in a large mixing bowl with the dried pear and pineapple (or mango), lemon zest, orange zest, breadcrumbs, flour, mixed spice, salt, suet and sugar. Stir to mix.

3. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, a dash of the angostura bitters, rum, the calvados (or cherry brandy) and milk. Add to the fruit mixture and stir well. At this stage, add the penny and take turns in the family to stir the pudding and make a wish.

4. Spoon into the pudding basin and press down well. Cover the surface with a disc of greaseproof paper. Cover the whole basin with some more paper and foil, making a pleat in the centre to allow for expansion during cooking. Secure with some string.

5. Place the pudding basin into a large saucepan and pour enough boiling water in to come halfway up the basin.

6. Now bring up to the boil, cover the pan and boil steadily for 5 hours making sure the saucepan doesn't boil dry. Top up with boiling water only.

7. Once cooked, remove from the pan and allow to cool completely. Re-cover with some fresh greaseproof paper and foil. Store in a cool, dark place for four weeks, or even longer. During this time, I have been known to add a little more rum to the pudding!

8. To reheat on the day, steam the pudding for 2 hours as above.

9. To serve, turn out onto a warmed serving dish. Warm some rum in a pan, and set it alight with a match. Pour this over the pudding and decorate with holly.

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Ingredients

225g seedless raisins
225g dried cherries
225g sultanas
75g chopped dried pear
50g chopped dried pineapple, or mango
grated zest of 1 lemon
grated zest of 1 orange
225g fresh white breadcrumbs
75g plain flour
1 tsp ground mixed spice
1/4 tsp Salt
225g shredded vegetable suet
225g soft dark brown muscovado sugar
4 large eggs, beaten
1 dash (or two) Angostura bitters
55ml dark rum
55ml Calvados, or cherry brandy
75ml Milk
1 sterilised penny, wrapped in a little greaseproof paper - optional

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