Getting Ready for Christmas Part 12 - Stir Up Sunday Time for Christmas Pudding

Stir up Sunday this year is this Sunday 22 November 2015.  It is the time traditionally when you make your Christmas puddings and the family queue up to have  stir of the Christmas pudding and make a wish.  This happened in my family at my Nan's then my mum's and indeed my own household.  My puddings will be started tomorrow and then completed on Sunday.  I usually use the Delia recipe from her original Christmas book which uses stout in the mixture; The other year I had no stout and so I used cider and it was just as nice.

When I was a girl and we used to go to my Nan's when she made the puddings she used to hide a silver threppeny bit in the pudding.  You can hide these in the pudding or a sixpence but if you do make sure it is wrapped in foil to protect it and to protect the pudding.  A big thing was always made of giving the pudding a stir and making a wish - we knew Christmas was on the way when this took place.  Waiting for things to happen when you are a child seems to take an eternity.


Here are links to two previous posts I have posted on Christmas puddings including the recipe.
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http://tarragonnthyme.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/advent-sunday-stir-up-sunday-time-to.html

So today is the day you mix up your ingredients and leave to stand overnight and tomorrow you make your Christmas puddings.  I have my brother's to do tomorrow.  You can cook the puddings in  a steamer in a slow cooker, in a pressure cooker in a saucepan on top of the cooker. and the more cooking the puddings get the more flavour and the darker they go.  I have a batch I am making with cider and with Guinness.  The smell of the puddings once cooked is glorious.

However they will get put on at least a couple of times more to steam between being cooked and Christmas as we like our pudding nice and black.  On average I give mine about 8 hours cooking overall.

So next Sunday is the first Sunday in Advent and the time when you light the first Christmas Candle.

Christmas is on its way.

Catch you later.

Pattypan

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