Practically perfect pudding

Just wanted to stop by to wish of of you a very lovely Christmas and to share with you my "Practically perfect in every way" vegan pudding recipe (my mum came up with the name haha) because it is perfect.

Anyway, I kinda celebrated Christmas two days early with my family because they were all going away, and so today is being spent very quietly, sleeping in and reading ( I was given the book of Marilyn Monroe's writings Fragments by my friend - Thank you again Steph! - and it is my favourite gift of all. Can't stop reading it).

So here is the recipe - it was adapted from an old and ancient (well 60s/70s?) recipe by Margaret Fulton.

It sounds like a lot of work but it's actually surprisingly easy! 

Practically Perfect In Every Way Vegan Christmas Pudding

(makes a large pudding you can halve or quarter recipe if you want a small pudding like mine)

Ingredients:

810g worth of sultanas, raisins, currants mixed together

3 tbsp rum or brandy

250g vegan margarine (Earth Balance, Nuttelex)

250g brown sugar

grated rind of 1 orange & 1 lemon

4 eggs worth of egg replacer mix (Organ egg replacer or Ener-G egg replacer)

1 cup sifted plain flour

1 cup fresh breadcrumbs

1 cup almond or nut meal (or you can use another cup of breadcrumbs)

1/2 tsp each of salt, mixed spice, nutmeg, ground ginger, cinnamon and bicarbonate soda
extra rum or brandy

Method:

1. The day before place dried fruit in bowl, sprinkle with rum/brandy and leave overnight
2. The next day cream margarine (using mixer) fruit rinds and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Mix together 4 eggs worth of egg replacer powder with water and add to the sugar mix a little at a time.
4. Mix all dry ingredients together in another bowl
5. Stir the fruit and dry ingredients into the sugar mix alternatively, a little at a time until it is all mixed in.
6. Put mix into a large 6 cup pudding basin that has a circle of greaseproof paper covering the very base of the bowl. Cover with another round of greaseproof paper (on top of pudding basin).
7. Then cover the top of the basin in a double layer of tin foil or a pudding cloth and tie it firmly around the rim of the basin with string.
8. Steam the pudding in a saucepan of boiling water (with water reaching halfway up the basin) covered with a lid for 6 hours. Add more boiling water as necessary.

Serve hot or reheat the pudding on the day by re boiling it until hot or placing it on a plate and warming in the microwave.

Served with vanilla soy ice cream.

 Merry Christmas