This weekend is Stir Up Sunday, a centuries-old annual tradition where bakers spend the last Sunday before Advent ‘stirring up’ their Christmas pudding.
Here is a recipe for a Christmas pudding packed full of fruit including figs, by the bakers at Hobbs House Bakery, in Chipping Sodbury.
Ingredients
1.5 litre pudding basin
175g sultanas
175g raisins
50g dried figs chopped
50g dried apricots chopped
50g dates chopped
(total 500g of fruit, mix can be varied)
30g glace cherries chopped
75ml stout
25ml brandy
1 apple peeled, cored and grated
Juice and zest of 1 orange
3 eggs
175g muscovado sugar
125g shredded suet
125g sourdough breadcrumbs
100g self raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice
Method
Soak all the dried fruit overnight in the alcohol
The next day add the grated apple, orange zest and juice
Beat the eggs
Add the sugar and beat
Then add the suet, breadcrumbs, flour and spice, keep beating until mixed
Combine the two mixes together, stir well
Line the bottom of the pudding with a disk of greaseproof
Cover the top with a double of layer of greaseproof and foil
Gather and tie tightly with string
Steam for 3 1/2 hours, then store until Christmas day
Enjoy!
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