Victorian era Figgy Pudding Recipe

Tis the season for traditions, so here's one my mom used to  make every year
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 Victorian era Figgy Pudding Recipe

Traditional Christmas fayre is always a season treat and no Christmas dinner table would be complete without a steaming Christmas pudding for dessert.
Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding
From Tudor times to the Victorian era, Christmas pudding recipes were a little different to today's relatively "light" Christmas puddings.
Figgy Pudding was the Christmas pudding of choice for millions of households in centuries past and, of course, figgy pudding has been immortalized in the popular Christmas carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

Figgy Pudding Ingredients
To make the perfect figgy pudding, you will require the following ingredients:
8 ounces of breadcrumbs
 8 ounces of dried figs
 8 ounces of suet
 8 ounces each of sultanas, currants and raisins
 8 ounces of dark sugar
 4 ounces of candied or mixed peel
 2 ounces of plain flour
 rind and juice from an orange
 1 teaspoon of mixed spices (allspice is good, cinnamon, nutmeg,  a bit of ginger, go easy on the clove though)
 a quarter-pint of Brandy or Rum
 four large eggs
 and a pinch of salt.
This recipe is enough to make two figgy puddings that will each feed eight people. Halve the quantities if you plan to make only one figgy pudding.

How to Make Figgy Pudding
Follow these steps to make a delicious Figgy Pudding for Christmas:
    •    Cook the dried figs in simmering water until they become soft and then mash up the figs with a fork or spoon. Make sure you keep adding water so the pan doesn't boil dry. It can take around 20 to 30 minutes for the figs to soften.

    •    Thoroughly mix all the ingredients together in a large basin or bowl. Add a little milk if you need to make the pudding mix wetter.
    •    Place the figgy pudding mix into two greased pudding basins. Cover them with grease-proof paper and secure the basins with string. Make a string loop to act as a handle. The pudding will expand as it cooks, so leave a little room for this expansion by not filling the pudding basins to the top.

    •    Put the figgy pudding basis in a pan with enough water to fill half-way up the side of the basin. Place on a trivet and then bring it to the boil.
    •    Turn the heat down and let the pudding simmer for eight hours, adding more water whenever necessary.

    •    Wait for the figgy pudding to cool and then place it somewhere dark and cool. Ideally, the pudding should stand for two to three weeks.
    •    On Christmas Day, cook the figgy pudding in the same way but for two hours rather than eight. but can be served when cool enough to unmold.

    •    Decorate your figgy pudding with something suitably festive, such as holly. Serve by flambeing the figgy pudding in Brandy.
If you've made a second figgy pudding with this recipe, hold it over for New Year's Day or, even better, next Christmas.


Enjoy Folks!