Christmas Starts Here

Stir-up Sunday is a tradition dating back to Victorian times in Britain, on the last Sunday before the season of advent, families would gather together in the kitchen to mix the Christmas pudding.

Traditionally, everyone would take a turn to stir the pudding mix and make a secret wish which was supposed to bring good luck. Many households would also put a silver sixpence or threepenny bit in the pudding mix, it was believed that finding the coin brought health, wealth and happiness for the coming year. The pudding was traditionally made using 13 ingredients to represent christ and his disciples.

Stir-up Sunday evokes wonderful childhood memories for me, our kitchen would be full of the heady scents of Christmas: cinnamon, nutmeg, citrus peel and general liqueur laden fruity loveliness. My mother used an Italian liqueur, Tuaca, a combination of brandy and essence of orange and vanilla, now available in most supermarkets, this nectar is a Christmas must have!

Nowadays 90 per cent of us buy pre-made Christmas puddings. Each year amongst much fanfare puddings are put to the taste test with surprising results. Last year Aldi's Christmas pudding which cost less than £4, trumped Fortnum and Mason's pudding costing £24.95. We saw the must have culinary craze for Heston Blumenthal's hidden clementine pudding (I was really disappointed with it) and this year I've bought a pudding finished with edible gold glitter.

Having eaten my way from Fortnum's and Harrods Christmas puddings right through to Aldi's, I can honestly say not one has come close to my mum's! Sadly, two thirds of British children have never stirred, or been bound up in the excitement of making a Christmas pudding.

One of my favourite Christmas treats is stollen, a rich and sticky fruit bread anointed with rum or brandy, laced with marzipan and doused in icing sugar. Having worked my way through one box of mini stollens in the space of 2 days, I thought I had better share the second box with my family. I decided to make a stollen (bread) and butter pudding, it was so simple as the fruit and sugar are already included, although I did add extra fruit, and the marzipan takes it to a whole new level!

Stollen bread and butter pudding

Recipe
1 box of mini stollen or a loaf of stollen
Butter
500ml milk
2 free range eggs
Cinnamon (optional)

Slice the stollen and spread with a little butter

You can add extra dried fruit or citrus zest at this stage
Combine eggs and milk and pour over stollen, sprinkle with cinnamon (optional) and set aside for 10 minutes

Heat oven 190c/gas mark 4
Place stollen in oven for 25 minutes or until risen and slightly crispy on top

Serve immediately with single cream........delicious!

'Stir up we beseech thee, the pudding in the pot;
And when we get home we'll eat the lot.'
- traditional rhyme

Love Donna xxxxxxxxxx