GORDON RAMSAY RECIPES

One of our favourite Christmas recipes has got to be a homemade Christmas pudding.

A hearty, flavoursome bake, Christmas puddings are traditionally made on Stir-up Sunday which falls on the last Sunday before December starts (the last before advent). In 2012, this is on 25th November but don’t worry if you don’t make it then, our selection of easy recipes has ideas you can make right up until the day itself.

Starting with our traditional Christmas pudding recipe, which comes with a handy step-by-step video recipe to ensure you get yours just right, our selection of the best recipes on goodtoknow features some delicious new flavour combinations as well a boozy version and a vegetarian alternative so you can suit your bake to any occasion or guest.

We’ve also got some great ideas for Christmas pudding alternatives if you’ve got any relatives that aren’t too keen on the rich taste. Our gingerbread pudding, from Christmas queen Delia Smith herself, and our Lincolnshire carrot pudding have the same kind of feel as the traditional bake but with a lighter taste.

Top tip: Whenever you make you Christmas pudding, it will take up to 4 hours to re-heat on Christmas day as you need to steam it to do this. Give yourself plenty of time – you don’t want lots of hungry faces waiting for their pud!

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You don’t have to use a gingerbread man cutter with this Hummingbird Bakery recipe, but it’s so much fun to decorate each one individually! Leaving the dough to rest overnight makes the cookies better the next day.

Ingredients

For the cake:

400g plain flour
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tsp ground ginger
2tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp salt
180g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g soft dark brown sugar or dark muscovado sugar
1 egg
125g black treacle

For the royal icing:

1 egg white
½ tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
310g icing sugar, sifted
food colouring, optional
gingerbread biscuit cutters
a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper

Method

For the cake:

Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
Put the butter and sugars in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and cream on slow speed until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat in the egg and treacle, scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Turn the mixer back down to slow speed and slowly add the flour mixture a couple of tablespoons at a time, stopping often to scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Once an even dough has formed, take it out of the mixer, divide into 3 and wrap each piece in clingfilm.
Leave to rest overnight in the fridge.
When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F) Gas 3.
Take the dough out of the fridge and leave to soften for about 10 minutes. Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and roll out the dough to a thickness of about 4 mm with a rolling pin. Cut out shapes with the biscuit cutters. Arrange the cookies on the prepared baking trays and bake in the preheated oven for about 10–15 minutes.
Leave the cookies to cool slightly on the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

For the royal icing:

Beat the egg white and lemon juice together in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk). Gradually start adding the icing sugar, mixing well after each addition to ensure all sugar is incorporated. Whisk until you get stiff peaks. If the icing is too runny, add a little more sugar. Stir in a couple of drops of food colouring, if using, and decorate the cookies.

This recipe is taken from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook by Tarek Malouf and The Hummingbird Bakers
Photography by Peter Cassidy
Published by Ryland Peters & Small
Text © Tarek Malouf and The Hummingbird Bakers
Photography copyright Ryland Peters & Small

By The Hummingbird Bakery

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Nutritional information

Guideline Daily Amount for 2,000 calories per day are: 70g fat, 20g saturated fat, 90g sugar, 6g salt.

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Tag: gingerbread gordon ramsay

Christmas pudding recipes