James Moffatt
There’s nothing quite like the tradition of Christmas pudding at the end of your holiday season meal, and this gluten-free, dairy-free and nut-free recipe proves you can make a delicious pudding that caters to different dietary requirements. It’s rich, moist and full of classic Christmas flavours that will delight all your guests (even the gluten-eating ones!).
Ingredients
Method
Combine mixed fruit, apple, sherry, rind, mixed spice and cinnamon in a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap; stand at room temperature overnight.
Grease a 2 litre (8-cup) pudding basin or steamer with a little dairy-free spread. Line base with a small round of baking paper. Arrange the clementine slices in the base of the pan in a circular pattern, slightly overlapping each other. Place a 30cm x 40cm piece of baking paper on top of a piece of foil cut to the same size; fold a 5cm pleat crossways through the centre.
Beat spread and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until pale. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir egg mixture into fruit mixture. Add breadcrumbs and combined sifted flours; stir to combine. Spoon mixture into basin; top with the pleated baking paper and foil, paper-side down (this allows the pudding to expand as it cooks); secure with kitchen string (or the lid).
Place an inverted saucer in the base of a large saucepan; place pudding basin on the saucer. Pour enough boiling water into the pan to come halfway up the side of the basin; cover with a tight-fitting lid. Boil pudding for 6 hours, replenishing with boiling water as necessary to maintain water level.
Remove pudding basin from water. Stand pudding for 10 minutes before turning out. Serve pudding topped with a sprig of thyme and drizzled with golden syrup.
You will need to start the fruit mixture a day ahead. You can use ready mixed dried fruit or use our custom suggestion of 150g each: currants, sultanas, pitted fresh dates and 300g dried figs, chopped finely, for the pudding.
Test Kitchen tip
You’ll need these…
Storing your gluten-free Christmas pudding
Pudding can be made 1 week ahead; store, covered, in the fridge, or freeze for up to 3 months. To reheat frozen pudding, thaw for 3 days in the fridge; remove from fridge 12 hours before reheating. Discard plastic wrap and return pudding to pudding basin. Steam for 2 hours following instructions in step 4.
Does Christmas pudding have gluten in it?
Most traditional Christmas puddings use wheat flour which contains gluten. While you could buy gluten-free flour to use as a substitute for a recipe, the pudding may not turn out exactly the same.
So you’ll usually find that you get better results with a recipe that’s specifically made with gluten-free ingredients, because they will factor in how the ingredients and measurements all work together for the best results. In the case of this recipe, we’ve also made the pudding with dairy-free and nut-free ingredients, unlike some traditional recipes.
