Brandy-soaked puddings

[crustychick]

so, I was purposely trying to avoid the C-word in the title. But i'm planning on making a traditional pudding which has fruit soaked in brandy in it and which you traditionally "feed" with brandy over several weeks/months, for consumption on a particular day in December.

I've not made one before and I'm going to be heavily pregnant come the day itself. So my question really is - how much brandy do I really need and will the pudding suffer greatly if I don't feed it loads of booze? I don't want my unborn to be getting too tipsy.

 

[whoha]

You can use orange juice or tea.
Isnt it more to do with moisture than flavour?

I've not made a Chri ... One of those since high school.

 

[Greebo]

Tea or orange juice will be fine (both for soaking the fruit and feeding it on the final day, not in the time in between) - you can buy teetotal puddings (from healthfood shops) and they can taste just as good.

 

[crustychick]

Oooh fab, I didn't knew that about oj and tea! Google was next to useless, and I was probably searching for the wrong things.

 

[Pickman's model]

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

 

[crustychick]

Stupid phone

 

[Greebo]

Oooh fab, I didn't knew that about oj and tea! Google was next to useless, and I was probably searching for the wrong things.

BTW my aunt, who makes her own boozy puddings with extra glace cherries (because she likes them) never feeds her puddings. They're given a generous dose to soak the dried fruit, and that's it until drenched and set fire to.

 

[crustychick]

BTW my aunt, who makes her own boozy puddings with extra glace cherries (because she likes them) never feeds her puddings. They're given a generous dose to soak the dried fruit, and that's it until drenched and set fire to.

That's good to know! I'm probably going to do two, one boozy and one not and see how they go

 

[moose]

My mum makes a booze-free one using black tea (orange juice is too sweet imo) but serves it with lethal brandy butter and rum cream on the side for the alkies in the house.

Just be aware the tea version doesn't keep like the boozy ones.

 

[crustychick]

My mum makes a booze-free one using black tea (orange juice is too sweet imo) but serves it with lethal brandy butter and rum cream on the side for the alkies in the house.

Just be aware the tea version doesn't keep like the boozy ones.

Top tip! Thanks

 

[RubyToogood]

I am not aware that feeding is done to puddings. My understanding has always been that it was only done to cakes. Certainly I have only ever engaged in the latter activity myself.

 

[Greebo]

I am not aware that feeding is done to puddings. My understanding has always been that it was only done to cakes. Certainly I have only ever engaged in the latter activity myself.

AFAIK the reason it's not usually done to puddings is that when you boil them for the first time the fat melts, then seals in the moisture as they cool and set. So if you added enough booze or other fluid, there should be no need to feed it.

 

[stdP]

Personally when I make a decemberween pudding (I tend to make three or four for friends and family), I start soaking it in september and generally I'll go through an entire bottle of el cheapo supermarket cooking brandy/rum. This has the effect of leaching out a load of the sugars from the fruit in a lovely gooey mess (and incidentally usually meaning you need far less sugar in the recipe).

However, after cooking (i.e. steaming for a good 4hrs) to my tastebuds there's very little of this alcohol left; much of the booze will evaporate during the soaking phase, and a great deal will escape during the steaming. You get the flavour of the booze but very little of the actual alcohol.

At this point you can choose to feed it to retain the moisture (I'll typically cook at the start of december and feed it for 20 days, typically about a 10tbsp of booze over the whole period) - and this alcohol sticks around a fair bit more especially if you keep the pud fairly well sealed - but if you're looking to keep the moisture and don't want it reeking of booze too much, you can switch to alternative feeds like tea. Alternatively I dare say you could cook closer to decemberween itself and forego the feeding entirely.

 

[Saffy]

I must be in the real minority but I don't like mixing my booze and food together.
I tend to soak the fruit in tea or orange juice and then wrap it and let it mature for a couple of weeks and then freeze it.
Then I just bring it out on Christmas week and decorate it.

 

[Greebo]

<snip> I tend to soak the fruit in tea or orange juice and then wrap it and let it mature for a couple of weeks and then freeze it.
Then I just bring it out on Christmas week and decorate it.

Good point about freezing - that matures and mellows the flavours of curries, so there's no reason it shouldn't mellow and mature an xmas pud.

 

[Saffy]

Yes I think it's often a way of quickly maturing a fruit cake if you've not left yourself much time.

 

[RubyToogood]

Then I just bring it out on Christmas week and decorate it.

Again I think there is a confusion between cake and pudding here, unless you ice your pudding before steaming it?

 

[Saffy]

No I meant Christmas cake, sorry.

 

[RubyToogood]

Further proof of my point that you don't soak puddings. Thank you. No further questions.