Discussions

Does anyone have a favorite recipe ? or is there somewhere to buy Christmas pudding and then I could make the caramel sauce ? are the Christmas cakes the same as Christmas pudding ?

Christmas cake, or what some people call fruit cake, is baked in an oven and the recipe is somewhat different than Christmas pudding, that usually is made using suet. Also when you cook Christmas pudding you usually steam it. When we make Christmas pudding we put it in mason jars and place it in a boiler and cook it that way.  
Christmas cake has a dryer texture than the pudding does. I do enjoy both but my favorite would likely be the pudding and that's because of the caramel sauce.  
Christmas cake is best made well before Christmas because the flavour seems to improve over time, we usually make our pudding a few days before Christmas, or if we make it earlier we freeze it.  
As for recipies, there are many online, and we don't use brandy in either the cake or pudding and many of the recipies do call for it.  
My wife told me that you can buy pudding but it is usually closer to Christmas that it's on the shelves.

Did she happen to say where you could get it? Don't think I've ever seen it in stores and haven't had it in years. Would love to have some this year but I'm not a very good cook.

The Big Way in Souris handled it last year and I imagine that there would be stores in Brandon that carry it. It was not called Christmas pudding, but was sold as plum pudding under the name of Royal Tradition plum pudding, we tried some and it was pretty good. I usually place some in a small bowl and heat it up in the microwave,on low, for a short time.

Try Kuipers - usually sells out but should have some soon, if they don't already....

I make a pudding that has carrots and potatoes in it, but no suet. This recipe is the closest I could find to my own, which I can't find at the moment:  
 
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/16153/carrot-pudding/?internalSource=hub%20recipe&referringContentType=search%20results&clickId=cardslot%202

I have bought it at Sobeys and it was good.

1cup grated carrots  
1cup grated raw potatoes  
1cup bread crumbs  
1cup currants  
1cup raisins  
1cup brown sugar  
3/4cup finely ground suet  
1/2cup flour(sifted)  
1tsp. salt  
1and1/2 tsp. each cinnamon,nutmeg,allspice, &1/2 tsp. baking powder  
2Tblsp. sour milk  
Mix in order given. Fill sealers or cans only 1/2 to 3/4 fulland steam 3 hours.  
Or, pressure cook 75 minutes @ 10lbs. pressure  
makes 4 pints, each pint is 4 generous servings.  
 
You can add cherries or nuts if you like.  
I always did the pressure cooking thing and I used cleaned tin cans(like fruit can size)  
 
My mother always made hard sauce and not caramel sauce. Hard sauce is butter vanilla icing made really thick and spooned on top of pudding portion to melt. It is so rich it makes my teeth ache thinking about it. I should make some this year. Merry Christmas.

this recipe is like mine but I cook it in a microwave bundt pan. cover with saran to steam, bake for 20 minutes a 1/2 power. stress the 1/2 power, one year when I did not have the recipe, cooked full power and it was like a rock!

Try the tea house northeast of town...her Christmas pudding is to die for and the sauce is easy enough to make if you have brown sugar cornstarch vanilla and hot water...(rum also if u like)  
 
We have used her at work several times for our Christmas Dinners and always tastes the same...delicious. I am sure she makes enough to sell.  
 
I have cheated and bought the RED packaged pudding at Superstore. After steaming it for about half an hour , with the sauce it is great.  
My Mum never knew the difference ....